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The .Illustrated Series. No. 4. January, 1889. Issued Quarterly. Subscription, 
jfctirert d as second-class matter at Chicago Post Qliice, June 1-1, 1W. 





/ Facts about the 

ALVATION ARMY 



the hallelujah Band 




'. 'K 

V 




^nd beyond 

Mipira Pacific RXi lwaY" 

^ Through Sleeping Cars and Coaches from 

Sttouis -Kansas City 

t« DE1STVER. 



FACTS ABOUT 



THE 



SALVATION ARMY. 



AIMS AND METHODS OF THE 



HALLELUJAH BAND^ 



Apr 171889. 




chicago and new york: 

Rand, mcNally & Company, Publishers. 

1889. 




Copyright, 1889, by Hand, McNally & Co. 



PREFACE. 



It was while employed as a writer of special articles 
on the Chicago Tribune, in September of 1888, that I 
came to have this unique experience with the Sal- 
vation Army. I was at the office late one night 
spinning out "copy," when the managing editor 
strolled into the room where I was writing and re- 
marked casually: " I think I have something for 
you to do." I looked up to receive instructions for 
a new assignment. A newspaper reporter is a per- 
son not easily astonished, but I defied all profes- 
sional etiquette on that point by dropping my pencil 
and jumping to my feet when this startling question 
was asked: 

"How would you like to join the Salvation 
Army?" 

After 1 had got my breath and had had a chance 
to reflect on the merits of the proposition, I was 
forced to admit that personally I did not like it at 
all. I had seen these little bands of self-styled 
" Soldiers of the Lord" at a distance, attended one 
of their meetings in a spirit of curiosity, and knew 
in what estimation they were held by the public — a 
class of fanatics, bizarre and picturesque, and excit- 
ing only wonder and ridicule. All this made me 
shrink mentally and physically from identifying 



6 



PREFACE. 



myself, even for a few days and for a purpose, with 
the Salvation Army. There is not in me any of the 
material of which martyrs are made, and, in common 
with most Americans, I shrink from ridicule as from 
the surgeon's knife. For these reasons, during the 
first few days in the Army the ego was uppermost. 
My own sensations over each new experience were 
so keenly unique and humiliating that my faculties 
for every other purpose seemed paralyzed. It was 
exactly as if every thought and feeling were trans- 
formed into x^hysical impressions of a most distress- 
ing and painful nature. 

This super- sensitiveness gradually wore away un- 
til I became able to separate my mind from self, 
and to study my companions and circumstances 
with the pleasure of a psychologist in a new mental 
and moral development; and this interest deepened 
into a recognition that my own and the popular idea 
of the Salvationists as a class, and the Salvation 
Army as an organization, was superficial. The beau- 
tiful life and character, the untiring zeal and com- 
plete devotion of Capt. Bertha Leyh first made the 
garb she wore and the mariner of her teaching seem 
insignificant. She ceased to be an isolated figure, 
and stepped naturally into history in line with those 
who have followed the heralds of new creeds in all 
ages. No matter what the cause, a rare courage is 
always required of its early advocates — sincerity, 
zeal, singleness and purity of purpose, and a scorn 
of worldly advantage; and these characteristics I 
found in as high degree among the Salvationists as 
we are taught to extol in the early Puritans. The 
Hon. J. Y. Farwell says in his lecture on " Chris- 



PREFACE, 



7 



tian Manliness" : iC There are some people who say- 
that the Salvation Army is after money. I tell you 
you can not hire people to kneel down in the street 
and pray; I heard a man speak there on the street, 
and I tell you he has got more Christian courage than 
all the crowd of us put together." He recognized that 
no amount of gain will reconcile a man to ridicule. If 
the accusation needed other refutation it might be 
found in the fact that if they are after money they 
would long ago have abandoned such an unprofitable 
calling. The commonest laborer enjoys more physi- 
cal comforts than do they, and at least carries in the 
labor of his own hands a guarantee that his present 
and future wants may be supplied. 

Not so these Salvationists. By the very terms of 
their contract with themselves and the organization 
they bind themselves to perpetual poverty, an abso- 
lute abandonment, of trust in each day to supply 
each day's frugal needs. Personal gifts shall not 
avail them in making provision for the future; they 
agree to engage in no warfare but this, and with only 
such compensation as they may gain, within a limit; 
all beyond that must be given up to extend and 
prosecute the work elsewhere. No one is responsi- 
ble for their bodily welfare, not even those among 
whom they serve; they have poverty, scorn, and 
ostracism for their portion. They must be sincere 
or there would be nothing to sustain them; the 
whole of life for them is isolation in a purpose that 
must seem exalted enough to compensate for the 
lack of all else. 

There have been too many creeds having strange 
practices that have overlived prejudice to make 



8 



PREFACE. 



their methods of significance on that score. The 
drum and tambourine, the uniforms and official 
titles, are but a device— as General Booth himself says: 
' ' God Almighty' s latest and grandest device to save 
the souls of men. They dispel the idea that religion 
is a melancholy thing. This paraphernalia, the 
drums and trumpets, are only a means to the great 
end of saving souls. We are not averse to finery 
when it has the same effect." In this is the key- 
note to all their theatrical effects. They are avow- 
edly after a class of sinners not to be caught by 
sober dress and behavior, and the statistics of the 
east end of London already go to prove that their 
work is bearing the fruits announced in the pros- 
pectus. Stripped of the regimentals and military 
organization the Salvation Army differs in no par- 
ticular from other evangelistic creeds, except in the 
one material difference that the tendency of all 
other creeds is upward in the grade of its converts, 
and toward permanence, respectability, and social 
and political importance. The Salvation Army's 
course is downward. They seek, avowedly, the low, 
the ignorant, the vile, the individual and not the 
society. They bind no convert to the support of the 
order, but let him take his goods and stores and in- 
creased usefulness and influence into other fields of 
labor, satisfied that he is "saved" even though 
other men profit by it and not they. Enough remain 
with them to recruit their ranks so the increase is 
steady. 

It is inevitable that those who go among them to 
labor should be of the same class as their converts — 
ignorant, unskilled, incapable of more than one idea, 



PREFACE. 



9 



often vulgar and intolerant. It is undeniable, too, 
that many who are received into the Army as officers 
are positively promoted socially as well as spiritually 
thereby, because they never before knew cleanliness 
and right living. Simplicity in dress and life and 
devotion to an exalted purpose are refining in their 
influences. Otherwise, it is impossible to conceive 
what some of these Salvationists must have been 
before conversion and dedication got in their revivi- 
fying work. But the leopard does not change its 
spots, so the most zealous soldiers of the Lord will 
be found to be shaky on the multiplication table, 
discourteous in manner and speech, and vulgar from 
habit and inheritance. Even the refinements of 
religion never fought with the laws of heredity and 
conquered in one generation, but compulsion from 
within works a gradual change to without until the 
semblance gives a hope of the real physical, mental, 
moral, and social regeneration of the individual for 
the upbuilding of- society and governments. The 
officers of the Army from this class see only the 
individual soul saved, but General Booth, and many 
others in higher authority, are of broad culture, and 
know that through the work of the Army, a new 
strata is being formed from the disintegrated refuse 
of lower social life. If the supply of material on 
which the Army works could be stopped, a definite 
calculation could be made on the number of centu- 
ries it would take the Salvationists to overlive their 
usefulness; but the ranks of poverty, ignorance, vul- 
garity, and vice are recruited as rapidly as there will 
be evangelists of every creed to go among them and 
show them the way to a truer life. There is room 



10 



PKEFACE. 



for the Salvation Army, and it bears internal evi- 
dence, in its vast and perfect organization, the com- 
plete dedication of its officers, and the unlimited 
field in which they hibor, that it has come to stay. 
It compels our recognition and deserves our con- 
sideration. 

"Nora Marks." 



THE SALVATION ARMY. 



CHAPTER I. 

" Salvation Army. Monster demonstration. 
Marshal Ballington and Mrs. Booth will address the 
meeting to be held at Farwell Hall, Monday, Sep- 
tember 24, at 8 o'clock p. m." 

These were the words which arrested my attention 
one morning late in September of 1888 as I was rat- 
tling along on the North Side cable cars in the city 
of Chicago. They were displayed on a hnge poster 
in "yellow, red, and blue," Salvation colors, in 
letters so large that he who ran, or rode at light- 
ning speed on the North Side "grip," might read 
and ponder over the message they conveyed. 

I began to think — a cable car is very conducive to 
thinking of the spasmodic variety — but I doubt if 
anything practical would have resulted from this 
beginning if something else hadn't happened just 
then. 

The cable stopped ! 

Some genius of this windy city by the big pond has 
invented a lame rhyme to lit just such occasions : 

" Drop a nickel in the slot, 
And see the North Side cable stop." 

It was only a nickel and I had simply dropped it 
in the automatically outstretched hand of a bland 



12 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



conductor, when the cable stopped with a jerk that 
pulled my embryo thought up by the roots. There 
we were, stranded in the middle of a long, muddy 
block, two miles from "down town," for the space 
of fifteen precious, striving, driving, rushing, money- 
making Chicago minutes. 

It made me impatient. The face of a Board of 
Trade man opposite me fell two points in as many 
seconds; a shop-girl got up, looked out of the window 
at the drizzling rain, and then got off to trudge a 
weary way to her work. Time with her meant a fine, 
perhaps. A small boy kicked a hole in the uphol- 
stering of the seat, and a fat woman with a baby 
heaved a sigh and fell asleep in her corner. 

As for me, I had an appointment, but I had learned 
to await that cable 1 s own sweet pleasure with what 
patience I might command. Furthermore, every- 
thing is grist that comes to my mill. It would be 
the first fifteen-minute stop of its kind if I found 
nothing to write about for the rapacious columns of 
the Tribune. 

The material on this occasion didn't promise much. 
There was a leaden gray sky, a drizzle of rain, brick 
and stone rectangles on either side, the long and 
dingy "vista" of houses, reaching dismally into the 
future, as college graduates will have it, and that 
flaming poster. It was stuck up incongruously be- 
tween a bill setting forth the attractions of a popu- 
lar variety actress on one side, and an announcement 
of a horse race on the other. A bill-poster's boards 
are in the service of saint and sinner alike at so much 
a square foot. 

Usually these announcements of where a soul may 



SALTATION AKMY. 



13 



be gained or lost are equally uninteresting, but, 
having nothing else to do at that moment, I took to 
studying those bills. 

Across the face of all the smaller type ran one 
word in blazing yellow letters — £ ; Hallelu j ah ! ' ' That 
meant rejoicing. Why so much of it for so very 
insignificant an event I But was it insignificant ? At 
least this display was indecorous. Any college of 
divines would have informed you so. Eegular min- 
isters of orthodox creeds would announce the second 
advent in nonpareil under the patent medicine ads., 
if they published the fact at all; and here all theo- 
logical precedent was thrown aside, and the coming 
of Marshal Ballington Booth to conduct a revival of 
interest in his Master was blazed along the highway. 

' ; Is it well with your soul V ' startled the eye from 
below. A rather impertinent question, but it had 
a trick of waiting to be answered. ' ' Come and be 
saved!"' met the eye at the top. All over several 
square yards of space were words of admonition, 
invitation, and rejoicing in letters of blood and fire 
suggestive of one's fate if a refusal to listen and 
obey were persisted in. " Are you sanctified V' 
was the last sentence I caught as the cable very 
suddenly concluded to move on. Was I sanctified \ 
Not if I knew it. But were others ? We find it 
very easy to imagine saints and martyrs in days of 
old, but if it were suggested that giants live in these 
days also, the statement would probably provoke a 
smile. Xowadays we have no fanatics — men of 
one idea — nor saints who would die for the right. 
All the material for those sorts has been used up in 
making " cranks " — men who are fools for their 



14 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



pains. I wonder if always the beginnings of things 
have been seen only in retrospect ; if history is 
never significant until it is past. 

A vision of the Christ coming up from Galilee 
arose in my mind — unheralded except of his proph- 
ets and of John the Baptist, whose message was 
scoffed at ; of Loyola and Luther and the first 
Crusaders — all scorned by their generation, and 
jeered, and followed to the grave by millions who 
thronged the later centuries. In retrospect their 
shadows are long ; the present always foreshortens 
our view of things too big for the landscape. 

Perhaps that is why another vision I had was 
filled with insignificant figures — sad-looking women 
dressed in ungainly blue uniforms and hideous dis- 
figuring bonnets ; men in natty blue regimentals, 
and all walking apart from the mob that smiled and 
passed on. In some distant future would these, 
too, loom up larger ? 

I had paused for a moment at one of their street 
meetings ; saw them kneel in the dust to pray ; 
heard their slangy gospel songs and horrible can- 
cans on tambourines ; their exhortations and warn- 
ings ; had smiled and passed on, my only conscious 
feeling for them being one of amused wonder such 
as I would have felt on seeing any other curiosity. 
The idea of questioning why they expressed them- 
selves in their peculiar manner had never occurred 
to me before, but now I began to think. It was not 
for honors, glory, and emoluments in this world — 
they got none of these ; but poverty, scorn, and 
ostracism. Then it must be for some hope they had 
of the next life. 



SALVATION ARMY. 



15 



Here was the beginning of something ! 

I almost jumped from my seat at this sudden view 
backward from the future. I knew a little history 
too well to be deceived. This was how all new 
creeds had sprung up ; bizarre, startling, unortho- 
dox, in poverty, amid revilings, denunciation, and 
the vigorous resistance of prejudice, respectability, 
and of the authorities. Some of these reforms had 
died in the struggle, but the beginning of all of 
them had been the same. Those which had lived 
had, after a time, overtopped all opposers— and 
gathered them in. It didn't seem probable to me 
that the established order of things would be over- 
turned for a new idea, just because new ideas all 
seem idiotic — when we grow accustomed to, and 
accept them, they are no longer new. 

It is a sort of cowardice to refuse to explore a 
new creed. Why not take a voyage of discovery 
into it much as a navigator risks his life to find a 
northwest passage. Surely a new truth in experi- 
ence is worth as much as a new way to China. All 
one has to do in either case is to believe it can be 
found, and that it will be worth the finding ; and, 
so you find it, the end justifies the means ; the world 
asks not if you did it in a ship or a balloon, so it 
gets the benefit. 

I was coming on pretty fast toward the idea of 
joining the Salvation Army. It is true I am a 
church member in full and regular standing, but 
what availeth that unless there is a sense of being 
sanctified? We hear a great deal in the modern 
church about behaving ourselves on general prin- 
ciples, the beauty of right living, the regenerating 



16 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



influence of repentance, and the brotherhood of 
Christ, but not much of sanctification or eternal 
punishment. We have lost faith in the efficacy of 
these and in the reality of belief in them. Are 
they still among the practical experiences of life, 
and how far do they heal the ills of men % I wanted 
to be a Salvationist myself and prove, if not by ex- 
perience, by observation, the reality of things in- 
tangible. Now how to do it. 

There is one Scriptural injunction I have a remark- 
able felicity for obeying, and that is St. Paul's advice 
to be all things to all men. If one thinks so, it is 
just as easy to be a Salvationist, feel spiritually 
superior to those who revile, and beat up sinners to 
repentance with tambourines, as it is to sit in the 
seat of the scornful and mock — for the time being; 
only one mustn't stop at trifles. 

It wasn't clear just how the scheme would work 
out, but as an initial step I determined to go to the 
meeting at Farwell Hall, at which Marshal Balling- 
ton Booth, the son of General Booth, and Lord High 
Executioner of the Almighty over the United States 
forces was to preside. This much I knew, but I was 
not prepared for the rest which followed and gradu- 
ally unfolded to my understanding. 

When I entered the vast hall where the meeting 
was being held on the evening of September 24, I 
found it crowded to suffocation. Fully five thousand 
people were present and were packed and jammed 
up to the very walls, but we managed, my escort 
and I, to get up near the platform where the Army 
of the Lord had mustered in full force. The ranks 
of men and women, in their straight and sombre 



SALVATION ARMY. 



17 



- uniforms sitting erect in serried ranks, gave by their 
numbers a military aspect to the scene. The men 
were separated from the women, both in space and 
by the fact that a uniform, which lends them dignity 
in a body, invariably detracts from the beauty of 
women. Explain this if you can. A woman must 
be something distinct, individual, peculiar to her- 
self; she loses the instant she makes herself in the 
tailor' s image of some other woman. Men, on the 
other hand, are never so attractive as when arrayed 
in the distinctive dress of an order and in the com- 
pany of others similarly uniformed. On this occa- 
sion the women suffered by the contrast. 

As they sat together in rows, stiff, angular, and 
swathed in the indistinct lines of their sad-looking 
garments, they were robbed of all that belongs to 
them by their right of womanhood and empire over 
men. The blue poke bonnets shadowed all their 
destiny. There was not a gleam of light about them 
anywhere but in the vivid line of scarlet across the 
dark fold of silk on their bonnets, bearing the talis- 
manic words, ' ' Salvation Army, ' ' in letters of gold. 

Mrs. Booth was speaking, and the Marshal loomed 
his lank length in the rear, like the ghost of Banquo 
at the feast. The vast audience listened with breath- 
less attention to the little woman with the beautiful 
face and disfiguring dress as she poured out a stream 
of eloquence: " Salvation, save souls, the blood of 
the Lamb ' ' was the burden of it all, in one endless 
stream of repetition. 

" I live in His service. This is all my concern, to 
bring precious souls to His bleeding feet," she said. 

"Amen! " came from the depths of a blue bonnet. 

2 



18 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



" Hallelujah.!" responded a brother. 

u Praise God!" backed up the Marshal. 

"Amen to Jesus !" was the somewhat startling 
reponse of " Happy Harry," who is nothing if not 
theatrical. This saintly and impromptu scion sat in 
the front ranks on the platform, his face idiotically 
ecstatic, his hands working nervously, and punctu- 
ating the discourse vigorously with his exclamations. 
All those about him beamed on him in applause, a 
very injudicious proceedure, as it only encouraged 
him in antics that made everyone in the audience 
who had artistic perceptions long to tie him down 
and gag him. 

"If you don't love Jesus where will you be when 
you die?" 

Amid a breathless stillness Happy Harry re- 
sponded, "In the soup." 

Nods of approval ran through the ranks on the 
platform. Happy Harry had made a hit. He had 
put the thought of all in one comprehensive, popu- 
lar phrase. The audience giggled and then listened 
for the next "break" from that fortunate young 
man. 

My escort looked disgusted and wanted to go, but 
I gave him a reproving glance which caused him to 
open his eyes. I wanted to accustom his mind grad- 
ually to what was bound to happen next. Some- 
how I felt it in my bones that I was going to be con- 
verted, saved, sanctified by Mrs. Booth's eloquence; 
that I was going to identify myself with this Army 
of the Lord in which Happy Harry was such a shin- 
ing adjutant, and the idea didn't agree with me. 

" Come up and be saved ! Oh, your souls, your 



SALVATION ARMY. 



19 



precious souls that Jesus died to save are being 
1-o-s-t! Come, now He asks you. He is waiting. 
Come, come, come," said Mrs. Booth in one final 
appeal, and stood like an inspired figure, her dark 
garments falling about her, her face uplifted, while 
with a burst of song, a waving of handkerchiefs 
and volley of aniens the " monster demonstration " 
was all over. 

The crowd began to pour out and my escort pre- 
pared to do the same, but I laid a detaining hand on 
him and informed him that I intended speaking with 
Mrs. Booth. 

"Well, you look like it," he said, highly amused. 
He looked at me from the crown of my toque to the 
tip of my ties. 

"To be sure ; you can't renounce the vanities un- 
less you have some to renounce." 

' ' Going to renounce ' em V ' contemptuously. ' 'All 
right; go ahead." * 

He subsided against the wall and I pushed up to 
the front where a crowd of converts were waiting to 
shake hands with the spiritual grandees. This 
wouldn't do — to stand where I could reach their 
hands but never their ears — so I boldly stepped onto 
the platform and gradually percolated through to 
Mrs. Booth. 

The ranks of soldiers moved back for me to pass 
them, staring in wonder at my impertinent little 
toque and stylish get-up. The men gave me mili- 
tary salutes. One of the girls touched my wrap 
furtively, and they whispered all about me. 

" God bless you !" said one fervently. 

Down below the platform a thousand people 



20 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



surged and swayed trying to shake hands with the 
distinguished guests of the evening. I stood back 
of them, not knowing just how to go about making- 
professions of faith, but once up there I knew I was 
in for it ; there was no going back ; the soldiers had 
closed up behind me, and those nearest were wait- 
ing eagerly to hear what I had to say. I felt as 
Columbus must have felt when he landed among the 
aborigines. 

Mrs. Booth was doing duty with her hand at the 
same rate required of the "first lady of the land." 
This was surely some compensation for the hard 
work and harder living she had voluntarily assumed. 
When I stepped close to her she turned a beautiful, 
exultant, inspired face on me. It was clear, red and 
white, with dark shining eyes. Dark waving hair 
framed a white, full forehead, above which the blue 
poke bonnet was anything but a saintly setting. 
The dress was misshapen and awry on a figure that 
should have been trim, but the face was absolutely 
pure and holy, purged of all earthiness, and full of 
an enthusiasm beautiful to see in this dilettante age. 
I came under the spell of it myself and from that 
moment my curiosity in this unique people was 
tinged with respect and warm interest. So can I 
imagine the saints and fanatics of old dying for an 
idea which seemed to them good, absolutely dei- 
fied by self-abnegation, with just such a look as Mrs. 
Booth wore. 

' ' What is it dear child V ' she said, clasping my 
hand. She was not more than twenty -three herself, 
and younger with the youth of the spirit. I felt 
old and worn beside her. 



SALVATION ARMY. 



21 



U I want to be like you," I stammered, and it was 
said not insincerely. 

She smiled divinely, and then I saw that wonder- 
ful combination of spiritual exaltation and humility, 
that which acknowledges its own sinfulness and yet 
sets itself up as a standard for the guidance of 
others. 

' ' Are you converted, sanctified \ Do you feel that 
you are saved V ; 

' ' Yes, yes. It came so quickly while you talked. 
My life is so wasted in frivolous society. How can 
I become one of you V ' 

" God bless you !" she said. I was sorry she said 
it. It had the canting, ranting twang that deteri- 
orated her saintship. "The Army of the Lord 
always wants recruits." Then she squeezed my 
hand, gave me a holy kiss between the eyes, and 
turning to a woman standing near, said fervently: 

' ' Mrs. Evans, this is a new soul snatched from 
the burning; she wants to give herself to God." 

" God bless you !" 

" Praise Heaven !" 

" Hallelujah!" 

"Glory to Jesus," was pelted around me in a 
perfect hailstorm. 

Mrs. Booth turned to the front and the clamorous 
hands, while I was taken possession of by Mrs. 
Evans, a sweet, pale-faced lady who had that pecul- 
iarly pure complexion seen only in those whose 
diet is simple and whose minds are serene and un- 
troubled. She looked more like the early Quakers 
than a Salvationist, except for the consciously sanc- 
tified expression that made my own little sins rush 



22 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



over me with sudden and convincing force. But her 
assumption of superior holiness enabled me to lie 
as serenely as a May morning. If it had not been 
for this, her unsuspiciousness would have made me 
ashamed of my insincere professions. 

" God bless you ! Do you want to join the Army ? 
Have you been saved V ' with a deprecatory squeeze 
of the hand as if to apologize for the question. 

" Oh yes; I have belonged to a church for three 
years." 

She looked commiseratingly at me and shook her 
head. 

4 ' And your soul still in darkness and struggling 
toward the light V ' 

"Yes'm." What miserable pretenses ministers 
are anyhow. I had never seen one of them so sub- 
limely contemptuous of established things as this 
pale little woman. I was consumed with admiration 
of her. 

"Praise God!" she said, fervently, squeezing a 
jeweled ring into my unfortunate hand. 
" Can I join the Army ?" 

" Your mother will blame us if you do," she said 
cautiously. 

" But I can't be saved any other way; I had rather 
have my mother blame me than God." 

That rebuked her. If she had been keen at repartee 
she would have quoted a certain commandment about 
honoring your father and mother. 

" Bless Jesus ! So you will throw all earthly af- 
fections aside and cast yourself on Him % Praise 
the Lord !" # 

" Amen. Glory to God !" said " Happy Harry," 



SALVATION ARMY. 



23 



who had got around our way and was beaming sancti- 
fication on me. He gave me a fraternal squeeze of 
the hand and made room for others. 

" Well, come to see me at 452 Armitage avenue. 
I will be at home all the mornings of this week, and 
I will tell you about our Army of Salvation. May 
the Lord bless you and enable you to save many 
souls." 

From those who had collected about us on the 
platform word had passed down the line that another 
soul had been saved from everlasting punishment, 
so I went through a fire of hand shakes and " God 
bless yous " until I stepped down to my escort, who 
was pulling fiercely at his mustache. 

u Going to join the Army?" he asked, with a 
sneer. That's the way with the young men ; they 
have no reverence for things sacred. I treated his 
question with all the silent contempt it deserved. 
After all he had not caught the small section of glory 
and beatification from the face of Mrs. Booth, and 
so was not in a position to judge of my immense ad- 
vantage. 

The walk home was a quiet one. It included a 
stop long enough for a consultation with the powers 
that be on the best way to follow up my professions 
of sanctification by practical work in the Army. 

The "Well done," as a comment on my even- 
ing' s work, found no echo in my own breast. It 
seemed exceedingly ill done. My conscience was 
not yet calloused, and a course of deception, a disa- 
greeable incognito, to be kept up for a week or two, 
was anything but a cheering prospect. Already I 
was forbidden my usual haunts of j)leasure and 



24 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



usual methods of work. The world and its accus- 
tomed allurements were for me no more until this 
work were done. Already the shadow of it was 
over me. I felt committed to an unknown Salva- 
tionist mode of life, method of speech, and cast of 
thought. 

I prophesied my own wordly glances of amused 
indifference or idle curiosity directed toward my 
assumed self. In the light of all these dreams of the 
night a ribbon-decked tea-gown seemed a very in- 
congruous garb to wear down to breakfast. 



CHAPTER II. 

A fitting monument sometime to be erected to the 
inhabitants of Milwaukee avenue, Chicago, would 
be a Tower of Babel. Nowhere else in this cosmop- 
olite city is there such a confusion of tongues. 
Each nationality represented on the sign boards of 
that thoroughfare could be delegated to lay a stone 
and the structure would be as remarkable as the one 
chronicled in sacred writings. Of these conditions 
is born a furtive air, a suspiciousness always felt by 
people toward the unintelligible and unintelligent. 

If it were possible to abstract one's self out of 
American contempt for everything un-American, a 
scene on Milwaukee avenue would be one of peculiar 
interest. It is a kaleidoscope of strange sights and 
sounds. It is a bazaar of nations on dress-parade. 
The characteristic costume of the peasantry of Eu- 
rope, Asia, and Africa makes this street look like the 
market at Constantinople. 



SALVATION ABMY. 



25 



It was a Milwaukee avenue car whicli I boarded 
the next morning in order to seek an interview with 
Mrs. Evans, and discovered that Armitage avenue 
intersects Milwaukee at No. 1600. You may im- 
agine the ride in the horse car. It was still rain- 
ing, a nasty, drizzling rain, enough to dampen the 
ardor of more earnest souls than mine. Two men in 
the car eyed my pocketbook with interest when I 
paid my fare, and the fact that they spoke in Choc- 
taw or some idiot English did not tend to increase 
my ease of mind . 

We crept past a multitude of shops gay with cu- 
rious foreign wares of cheap manufacture ; past 
groups of foreigners gesticulating ridiculously ac- 
cording to American notions ; past sights and sounds 
and smells ; past evidences of an unrighteous mass- 
ing of humanity, into the shabby edge of the country 
to Armitage avenue, a region of uneven, unpaved 
streets, cheap tenements, and that air of desolation 
always seen where the country has not ceased protest- 
ing aginst the town's encroachments. Going east 
over this I picked up several pounds of wet mud to 
distribute over the floor of the returning car. It was 
eleven o' clock when I rang the door-bell of a neat red- 
brick house, No. 452, to discover that Mrs. Evans 
was " not at home." 

The handmaiden of the Lord's chosen who in- 
formed me of that fashionable fact was herself a 
descendant of one the builders of the original tower 
and the confusion was still in her tongue, or else the 
peculiar and dense stupidity she showed originated 
in a higher seat of intelligence, for she failed to 
make her meaning clear. 



26 



PACTS ABOUT THE 



" When can I see Mrs. Evans ?" I asked. 
" Uh hull," said that girl, cordially. 
" You don't understand. May I return to-mor- 
row V ' 

"Uh huh." 

"Shall I see her then?" 

" She vorks, uh huh," responded that lump of 
obtuseness, beginning to look frightened over my 
persistency. 

' ' Does she never stop % When isn't she working V ' 
"She sleep sometime," brightening at last when 
she discovered that she got hold of one end of an 
idea. It seemed useless to try to get that girl to con- 
ceive of an interval between sleeping and working 
when Mrs. Evans might stand a chance of being seen. 

But as I had permission to return I appointed 
a meeting for nine o'clock, and left with just 
grace enough given me to get home with, but net 
enough to brave another such ride the next morning. 
At that time I deliberately put myself into the 
hands of Satan and a cabman to reach my destina- 
tion. 

Mrs. Evans was at home. She came to the door 
herself, took me and my fashionable toggery into 
the house and blessed me. She looked more like a 
dear little Quaker lady than ever without her bon- 
net. A pretty little cambric kerchief was pinned 
about her neck, and her pretty brown hair was 
smooth as satin. 

We passed through a hallway crowded with a baby- 
carriage and a bundle of laundrywork, into a small 
sitting-room, where she left me to my own devices. 

This room was plainly furnished, with a table and 



SALTATION ARMY, 



27 



writing-desk occupying the places of honor. Above 
the desk was ranged a collection of photographs of 
Army people in uniform. There was "Happy 
Harry," the scheduled smile electrically fixed: " Sal- 
vation Sal"; a baby, with " Given to God" worked 
on its bib; a Salvation bride and groom, beaming 
with sanctified smiles: General and Airs. Booth, 
their seven children, all with titles affixed: the sisters, 
cousins, and aunts of the Booths, and a host of small 
fry. They were taken in uniform and in every 
pose; with the Son of Man. a crown-of-thorns-upon- 
his-brow look, the Mater Dolorosa in a poke, and 
the mother and child. The tambourine was borne like 
a palm branch, with the name of the maker on the 
rim; the flaring bonnet served as a halo about the 
heads of all the women. Everything for effect. A 
group could have been selected which, with an ap- 
propriate announcement would have been taken for a 
variety troop with a new opera requiring their unique 
costume. I afterward discovered that no profession 
except that of the stage has such a passion for atti- 
tudinizing and being photographed as the Salvation- 
ists 

"I never saw anything like it before," I said, 
clasping my hands, as Mrs. Evans returned. "Isn't 
it lovely to know how they all look, and then you 
know their dress will never grow old fashioned and 
make the picture look ugly." 

" Because we always have one fashion. Yes, the 
seasons and years come and go and it is always the 
same with God and those who labor in His service. 
And now you will be one of us. praise God ! What 
shall we call you C 



28 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



"My name is Bertha Mayo. I live on South 
Park avenue and have been attending a Methodist 
church down there." 

The instant I had given these antecedents I re- 
gretted it. South Park avenue was so accessible, 
and within an hour my whole statement could be 
disproved. If there is a Methodist church on that 
street it is probably the one of my creation. Mrs. 
Evans might be well-enough informed to be in a 
position to contradict me then. Evidently she was 
not, for she next asked solicitously: 

' ' And you are dissatisfied ? What good work have 
you ever done V ' 

"Nothing but fashionable missionary work. I 
took jelly and flowers and tracts to the poor and 
sick, and made flannel shirts for the heathen, 5 ' I 
recited glibly, and thought of poor Caddy Jellyby. 

She shook her head over the wastefulness of life. 

"Poor child; is that all you could do for Jesus ?" 

" It is all they would let me do. I never knew I 
ought to do more until I attended your meetings and 
learned how much good you were doing." 

"Praise the Lord. I will bring the Major to talk 
with you. He is my husband." 

So her husband was a major? I wondered if, in 
the event of my joining the Army, there would be a 
major for me ! She returned presently with her 
major, who, on the present occasion, was arrayed 
picturesquely in his shirt sleeves. Here I was in the 
presence of one of the officers in the Army of the 
Lord, and so little awed was he by his majestic mis- 
sion that he didn't even wear a coat. 

" God bless you !" he said, on general principles, 



SALVATION ARMY. 



29 



taking it for granted that I was there to be blessed. 
I had been betting to myself on the probability of his 
making this highly original remark. 

He was a rather handsome man; one who would 
pursue one idea to the bitter end and until the stam- 
ina was all knocked out of it. In other words, if 
the Army hadn't gathered him in some other organ- 
ization would; his zeal would have been the same. 
He was somewhat younger than Mrs. Evans, and, as 
I afterward learned, was also younger in Christ; 
but so zealous is he that he has for three years been 
the divisional officer in command of Chicago, Illinois, 
Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Within this time his 
little bands of soldiers have become familiar to 
almost every community in the three States. 

" God bless you !" he said again, giving my hand 
a squeeze right in the presence of his wife, and 
throwing a Mater Dolorosa look at a fly-specked 
ornament in the center of the ceiling. After that he 
ran out of anything to say and continued to squeeze 
my hand in order to fill in an eloquent pause in the 
conversation. I have seen young men who were 
provided with convincing arguments of that descrip- 
tion — especially on Sunday nights— but this was the 
first time I had subdued a major. It fluttered me, 
and I didn't know what to say with his wife look- 
ing on. 

It was just absent-mindedness, after all. He 
brought his eyes down from contemplating the fly- 
specks, and released my hand at the same mo- 
ment. 

" Ah, yes, excuse me. God bless you !" 
"May I have a chair?" I asked faintly. 



30 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



" Yes, yes. Take this. May the Lord strengthen 
yon. Yon are not strong." 

" Yes, I am strong. Will there be room for me in 
the Army ?" 

" There is always room. Yon can be a soldier, 
attend the meetings, then be a cadet or candidate, 
and afterward an officer." 

This didn't snit me. I wanted to be full-fledged 
at once. Tears came to my accommodating eyes. 

" I can't attend the meetings. My mamma won't 
let me Unless I come among yon I can do nothing. 
I have money, and am twenty-one. I won't be any 
expense to yon, and can pay my way wherever I am." 

" Is it so bad \ Perhaps yonr mother will keep 
you from coming altogether, or blame us." 

"No, I can do as I please; only if we were living- 
together it w^ould annoy and vex her so, and all her 
fashionable friends. Then she would tease me and 
cry, and that would make me unhappy. She said I 
should not live in her house and be a Salvationist. 
She thinks all your performances ridiculous and dis- 
graceful.' ' 

"So blind!" 

"Thank God, I can see! Will you send me back 
to that false life ?" 

"No. Praise God. He never rejects a soul that 
has been called to Him. ' ' 

"My cousin Jessie will come, too. (I had discov- 
ered the evening before where I could get a cousin 
to order.) Jessie has always been a religious girl, 
and wants to come with me. Let me give you some 
money now." 

"No," the Major said, decidedly. "All our wants 



SALVATION ARMY. 



31 



are supplied by the Lord. We have no need of 
money. Keep it." 

I wonder if any minister of the Gospel would have 
answered me so. One might have rejected an offer- 
ing for his personal honor and pride, but would he 
have given such a reason % 

6 ' You can not use your money in the Army. 
None of us have an income. We leave all that 
behind. What is ours is yours. Come and be one of 
us if you will." 

" When; to-day?" 

" In a day or two ; I must make arrangements for 
you. Bring your cousin to 1117 Milwaukee avenue, 
the headquarters of Chicago No. 5 Corps, and we will 
meet you there and take you to a place of rest. Let 
us pray!" 

This was the last straw! I sank onto my knees 
mechanically and sobbed hysterically. We all knelt 
around one chair, the Major and Mrs. Evans on either 
side. Mrs. Evans took one hand caressingly, and the 
Major prayed: 

' ' Our heavenly Father, .bless us, we pray Thee, as 
we kneel in Thy presence. Bless this dear soul that 
will give herself to Thee. She is used to the vanities 
of life, the ease and luxury, but she wishes to give 
them all up and serve only Thee. She knows not 
the scorn of the world, the revilings meted out to 
Thy servants who put on a sign that they serve 
Thee. Help her to bear these, Lord!" ("Amen" 
from Mrs. Evans.) ' ' May Thy spirit so surround her 
that all things borne for Thee will be easy. She is 
leaving home and the love of a mother. Oh, help 
her, Lord, to feel Thy constant presence! Let her 



32 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



cheer the afflicted, bring souls to Thy feet, and find 
all her joy in serving Thee! Amen." "Amen," 
responded Mrs. Evans. ' ' Praise God. ' ' I thought it 
was time to get up, but, as they still knelt, I said 
"Amen," too. Still they did not rise, but began a 
song, " What a friend we have in Jesus." 

One verse was sung through, and, after a pause, 
Mrs. Evans prayed in much the same strain. I felt 
horribly wicked, kneeling there, taking mental notes 
of what to me was a "performance." It was long 
afterward before I could pray in a reverent spirit 
and without reproaching myself for this deception. 
They were evidently so in earnest, and trusted me 
and my professions so fully, that I felt wicked enough 
for red-handed murder in acting the hypocrite so 
successfully. 

"Amen!" came at last. When we arose to our 
feet, I was trembling, and tears stood in my eyes. 
The Major clasped my hand, and Mrs. Evans kissed 
me. 

" God bless you!" they both said, with unan- 
imous originality. I uttered a few incoherent words, 
steered my way through the hall, and got out to my 
long-suifering cabman, thinking that, if they hired 
cabs by the hour, they would be apt to curtail their 
devotions. 

"No more cabs for me!" I said to Mrs. Evans, 
referring to my renunciation of all things worldly. 
"Mamma made me take one to-day, but after this I 
shall walk among the lowly." 

"God bless you!" she said again. The cabman 
grinned an unrighteous grin, and I sank back into 
my seat, and was conveyed to my sinful home, a 



SALVATION ARMY. 



33 



box of bonbons, and a consultation with ' ' my cousin 
Jessie," who was so recent an acquisition that I had 
some difficulty in remembering her familiar name. 



CHAPTER III. 

It is well that young lady arrived when she did, or 
we should have got ourselves hopelessly entangled 
in different versions of family history. In the first 
place, she didn't look any more relation to me than 
an Irishman does to a Chinaman. She was a delicate, 
fragile little girl with a pale complexion and soft, 
fair hair. She wore glasses, and was sweet and 
demure. But one twinkle of her big gray eyes was 
proof sufficient that a humorous situation would be 
taken in by that dear girl and fully appreciated. I 
shall never cease to be grateful for that quality of 
humor in her. If she had been devoid of that, those 
next two weeks would have been unendurable. 

"You are accounted for; all you have to do is to 
remember who you are, and stick to my story. I 
had no time to consult you about what character you 
chose to assume, but you are my cousin Jessie Mayo. 
You are an orphan with a little money, awfully 
religious, and awfully fond of Bertha — that' s me. If 
you find the last requirement difficult, please assume 
the fondness for the sake of appearances. You must 
remember we have been like sisters." 

"All right. It's perfectly immaterial to me. 
One story fits me as well as another. ' ' 

Then we two got as thick as thieves, and sat there 
in our rocking chairs deliberately planning a con- 

3 



34 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



certed course of deception that should look, oh, so 
guileless to those who should be taken in by our 
guile. I felt like one of Dumas' heroines, and as if 
my companion were a female Le Coque, who was 
luring me into an intrigue. It got to be horribly 
fascinating, this imagining a new identity for one' s 
self, and fitting a thousand and one incidents to an 
imaginary life under other conditions than those 
which governed my own. The selves we manufact- 
ured became absorbing and real, and the lunch bell 
brought me back to my own self with a start. This 
will, perhaps, explain why we found so little dif- 
ficulty in keeping up our assumed characters. Much 
of the time we forgot that we were anything but 
what we seemed. Often it was the real self that was 
hard to realize. 

After dinner the next day, we put on our ordinary 
garb, and took a car to 1117 Milwaukee avenue, to 
Chicago No. 5 Corps. All who are familiar with 
Salvation Army methods would have known the 
place by the red curtains that blazed at the windows. 
We did not know if ordinary church etiquette were 
required in an attendant on their meetings or not, 
but concluded to venture that much and opened the 
door. A lumpy girl, in a uniform and red jersey, 
sat by the door. A seraphic smile illumined her 
face as we entered. 

"God bless you!" she exclaimed fervently. 

' £ Amen!" responded Jessie, so solemnly that I very 
nearly lost my balance and tumbled onto one of the 
long benches in a flabby heap. 

The hall was chilly and bare, the seats being the 
plainest and most uncomfortable wooden benches 



SALVATION ARMY. 



35 



with an excuse for a back. A girl and her lover were 
present, giggling after the manner of their kind, in 
a corner; two young rowdies slunk in and slammed 
themselves into seats; there was a small boy, 
preturnaturally solemn, and Jessie and I. The only 
attempt at ornamentation was in some rudely exe- 
cuted mottoes on the wall. One of these legends 
read: 



ETERNITY, 
HEAVEN OR HELL— 
WHICH SHALL IT BE? 



Next this was a soul-stirring inscription: 



: PLEASE DON'T SPIT ON THE FLOOR. 



The small boy in front of us spelled this out, pain- 
fully, and then in an absent-minded manner spit on 
one of the benches with an accuracy of aim only to 
be attained by long practice. It was all beautifully 
solemn and impressive, and like a barn or some- 
thing, but Jessie giggled, and the girl in the red 
jersey looked sad over the audience that never came. 

The Major and Mrs. Evans arrived just as we were 
ready to collapse, and Jessie was introduced. 

"God bless you!" they said in grand concert. 
" So you are cousins. No one would ever guess it." 

' 6 1 am older than Bertie, and am an orphan. That 
has made me more serious. She has never seen any 
trouble or care." 

"Pear child, I am afraid she doesn't realize the 



36 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



hardships she is undertaking. It is hard for those 
to whom life has been easy." 

" Life had been easy!" I shut my eyes suddenly 
and saw visions, and then opened them again to this 
very real and very easy little farce. 

"We have made arrangements for you to go to 
Englewood to stay awhile with the Captain in charge. 
She is a very sweet girl. Are you willing to go 
there?" ' 

" Any where where there is work for the Lord!" 

' 4 There is work for Him everywhere. This is one 
of the nicest places Ave have. We don't want you to 
see it too rough at first." 

u Oh, we want hard work!" 

u After awhile, next week, perhaps, you may go 
where it is harder." 

We acquiesced, willing to serve the Lord and obey 
his self-appointed officers. We were then intro- 
duced to the girl in the red jersey, who proved to be 
the Captain of Corps 5, and to two other girls in 
uniforms. 

u God bless you," said the Captain. "We wel- 
come you as sisters in the Lord." 

"God bless you," I managed to resxDond. Their 
responses are easier to learn than are those of estab- 
lished church. Once you get this phrase by heart, 
and you are provided for in the matter of absolutely 
necessary Salvation phraseology. All other express- 
ions are merely addenda to the regular service. 

We were kissed, and I, remembering the injunc- 
tion, turned the other cheek also, but Jessie' s face 
was as expressionless as a weatherbeaten sign-board. 
And then we went out into the cold, hard, un- 



SALVATION AEMY. 



37 



feeling world to take what was offered at its hands. 
Perhaps you think this was easy ! 

Ordinarily the world, and the people who walk 
about in it, seem very warm and friendly, but the 
conditions of this encounter were peculiar, to say the 
least. 

The Major and Mrs. Evans had on all their war 
paint; their blue uniforms, the nickel shield-shaped 
pins of the order, the brass letters in their collars; 
the poke bonnet of Mrs. Evans, and the gilt band 
and badge on the Major's cap were all a dead give 
away. The dear public, ever generous, took us in 
at a glance, and we took them in at something more 
than a glance. On the Milwaukee avenue car it was 
not so bad. The inhabitants of that region are used 
to seeing every species of biped that walks and 
probably thought our major a drum -major. 

But on the State street cable ! ' ' Lord deliver us ' ' 
I prayed when I saw the crowd on that cable car. 
But the prayers of the ungodly avail not; we had 
to face them. We hung our heads like sheep-dogs 
when seen in the company of their proposed victims. 
Jessie stood back on the pavement, limp and nerve- 
less, until the Major took her by the arm and pulled 
her into the car. I followed Mrs. Evans and sat in 
the shadow of her poke bonnet, peeping from be- 
hind it to see if by any unlucky chance an acquaint- 
ance of mine should appear. If there had I vow at 
that moment I would have cut him dead. But no 
one I had ever seen before was there. Most of those 
people went clear through to Englewood. They 
were well bred, well dressed, and looked at us as 
they would at any other freaks out of a museum. 



38 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



It made my face burn; I got liot and cold in sudden 
flushes and shivers, while my backbone felt as limp 
as a cotton string. Those people threw neither 
watermelon rinds nor epithets at us, but they listened 
curiously to our conversation and made little amused 
comments. Jessie tramped my toes purple, and I 
was enduring an agony of mind and spirit simply 
indescribable. 

All that time, too, the Major talked to us in sten- 
torian tones and gave away the whole scheme, so 
that all those forty people became cognizant that 
Jessie and I had left homes of luxury to don the 
blue uniforms of the Salvationists and walk in the 
serried ranks of the saved. 

" When did you first feel the spirit of God call- 
ing you ?" asked the Major, and the audience hung 
on my answer, which I tried to make inaudible. 

"In Peoria. I visited there last summer and 
attended their meetings.' ' When I remembered how 
and why those meetings had been attended, I felt 
guilty; I wanted material for an editorial on "Round 
pegs in square holes," and found it there. 

But the answer set me all right with my interested 
audience. Balls of colored fire danced before my 
eyes, and I grew dizzy while the inquisition went on 
from the thumbscrew to the rack. All my experi- 
ence, my inner heart and soul, were turned inside 
out for the benefit of that crowd. Surely this one 
torture has been left for the nineteenth century to 
discover. We are so habitually cynical in demeanor 
that a display of feeling or experience in public is 
considered but little short of idiotic. I fairly groaned 
in agony, but it did no good. 



SALVATION AEMY. 



39 



"Did you go to the meetings because you were 
interested V - 

"No. I went to make fun." 

" Like so many others who go to scoff and remain 
to pray. You will soon be an officer." 

"Oh, I never thought of that. I want to be just a 
soldier. ' ' 

kt Yes, but our best soldiers become officers. You 
are so earnest, and, though young, you have had 
many advantages. Education is a good thing and 
always tells in any kind of service." 

' ' I would be so glad if I were considered 
worthy," I murmured, and then leaving Jessie to 
the tender mercies of the Major, I turned to Mrs. 
Evans. 

"That's a lovely bonnet you have on ! Where do 
you get them V ' I think them simply the most 
hideous things ever invented, but I was after infor- 
mation. 

"Do you think so ? Then it will be easy for you 
to put them on. I didn' t like them at first. You 
can have them made, but this came from head- 
quarters in New York, and cost $5." 

i ' This one seems so sinful that I have on. How 
soon could I get one like yours V ' 

" In about a week, by sending immediately." 

' ' What is it that makes Englewood so nice for 
the Army?" 

6 ' Oh, they can march there on the streets when- 
ever they want to." 

So we could march unmolested ! Good heavens ! 
Jessie heard and uttered a sepulchral groan. 

" They stopped our marching in Chicago, but we 



40 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



are having a test case and may win it. The Lord 
will prevail over His foes." 

" Amen !" responded the Major. 

" When you march you can get big crowds to fol- 
low you and have rousing meetings. It is a good 
thing to be able to march. " 

"Don't rough boys throw things and call after 
you ?" 

"Oh yes," serenely. "But what harm does that 
do ? They come to the meeting afterward, and some- 
times get converted. Our idea is to make religion 
attractive. Satan never fails to advertise his wares." 

"Do you get good audiences this way ?" 

"Oh yes. You know we work among the low 
and vile, those lower in intellect and moral tone 
than the churches can reach by their respectable 
methods. Rough boys and men think our meetings 
a new and cheap kind of a show, and come just to 
see what odd things we do. Then they get inter- 
ested and saved." 

4 ' Did you ever think of devoting your life to 
the Master in any other way?" interposed the 
Major. 

" Yes; I thought of a Protestant sisterhood, and 
might have gone into one. The Catholic sisters 
can't marry, and that seems so foolish, if not 
wrong." 

"Yes; it is against God's ordinance. In the 
Army if you become an officer you promise not to 
marry anyone for two years. Officers usually marry 
among each other, and go on with the work together. 
Indeed, you have to promise not to marry anyone 
who would interfere with your work in the Army. 



SALTATION AEMY. 



41 



Mrs. Evans converted me and tb en married me and 
we work together for the glory of the Lord." 
* " Amen !" said Mrs. Evans. "I think you may 
do the same, and become a great power for good." 

Oh, if I could just catch "Happy Harry"; that 
would be a star combination devoutly to be wished. 

There was just one other point on which I wished 
to be informed, and asked: 

" Do your soldiers live all-together in barracks?" 

" It is so odd for people to think that. Our soldiers 
live in their own homes just as church members do, 
and follow their usual vocations. The officers are 
like ministers of the Gospel and live in houses. 
Two or three women or two men live together. The 
sexes are always separate unless married. It is 
because women and men are equal, hold the same 
position in the Army and do the same work, that 
has made malicious people start this story." 

We had transferred to the horse -car, gone over 
the viaduct, and now got off at Englewood avenue. 
The gleam of a red curtain half way down the block 
indicated the Salvation Army hall. As we got off 
the car a street Arab yelled: 

"Hello Salvation," but if the Major and Mrs. 
Evans heard they made no sign. As for poor Jessie 
and me, we gasped and clung to each other and stum- 
bled on in the darkness after our guides. 

We pushed through a crowd about the door, where 
we were greeted with a variety of epithets, most of 
them friendly, and passed into the hall. The meet- 
ing had just been dismissed, the room was still full 
of people and smells, and the best of spirits pre- 
vailed. Everybody shook hands with our escorts, 



42 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



and a few slopped over with Salvation and took us 
in, too. 

"These are two more dear sisters in Christ," ex- 
plained the Major to everybody. 

" God bless you !' ' was the instant response ac- 
companied by a Masonic grip that left my hand 
a mass of jelly at the end of five minutes. But I 
smiled and endured it. There was no doubting the 
genuineness of their good feeling. When the crowd 
had thinned a little the Captain, a dark little woman 
of twenty-four, with a sweet, pale face, came down 
to us. 

"This is Captain Bertha Leyh," said the Major 
introducing us. " Captain, these are Bertha and Jessie 
Mayo, two dear souls who have given themselves to 
God. They will live with you awhile to learn how 
to serve Jesus." 

"God bless you!" said Captain Bertha. "We 
shall have to call you Bertie, but they all call me 
Captain, anyhow. You are welcome to all we have 
—it is the Lord's!" 

I smiled at this extravagant language, not knowing 
until afterward how absolutely true it was. Jessie 
gave my arm an unearthly pinch to show her appre- 
ciation of the sentiment. The Captain was gifted 
with a rich, warm voice and a good deal of magnet- 
ism much like that possessed by Mrs. Booth. She 
wore her abundant hair in braided loops low on her 
neck, the front hair waving naturally but combed 
straight back. When her face was lit with enthu- 
siasm she was more than beautiful. I noticed how 
the men stood uncovered when she passed them, and 
how affectionately all said good-night to her. How- 



SALVATION ARMY. 



43 



ever she had done it. the loving respect she had in- 
spired in all who knew her was genuine ; it seemed 
to me, looking at her that she was love-worthy. She 
took my arm when we got to the street and we 
walked down Wentworth avenue to Sixty-second 
street. 

,w Hello, Salvation," yelled a small boy. 

"Doesn't it annoy you 8" I asked, flushing pain- 
fully even in the dark. 

" It" s the sweetest sound on earth to me — salvation 
— because I know I've got it. Oh. those blind souls 
out therein the dark. Oh. our Father, lead them to 
the light where they may see Thy face and be 
blessed." 

"Amen!" said someone behind us, in derision. 
Passing under a gaslight just then I saw Captain 
Bertha's face actually transfigured, with holiness. 
The ugly blue straw bonnet framed a sanctified coun- 
tenance that was filled with a beatific passion. Far 
above, the pale, pure stars shamed the murky gas- 
light, so did the light of her countenance shame the 
passions of men. She was either a saint or a fanatic, 
perhaps a little of both. If so, why should I accept 
the testimony of other mens eyes recorded in history 
and reject this experience of my own \ Prophets 
and heroes and saints will be recorded of this day 
after the day is past, and it will be a privilege then 
to have known one of them. I watched Capt. Bertha 
Leyh closely after that and never in a week of inti- 
mate companionship did I see the smallest speck on 
her sincerity and complete self-abnegation. What- 
ever it was it was genuine. 

We stopped at last before a shabby house on Sixty- 



44 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



second street and blundered up a dark stairway, over 
trunks and boxes piled into a hall and into a small 
parlor where two girls were sitting at a table counting 
money, the collection, which consisted of a number of 
small coins. One of them was strong and dark, with 
a firm, healthy skin and self-confident, hearty air. 

"This is my sister Clara," said the Captain, ' \ and 
this is our little cadet." Clara looked up and 
laughed cordially. 

' ' I love to count money. I guess I am the miser. 
Bertha always lets me count the collections." 

The ' ' Cadet ' ' had stiff, hay-colored hair, snags of 
black teeth, and a face of the consistency of brick- 
colored putty. Her movements were about as plas- 
tic. She hung her head on one side as if her humil- 
ity were too flabby to stand up. 

4i These dear girls have come to live with us," ex- 
plained the Captain, her arm about me affectionately. 

' ' It isn' t as easy as you think, ' ' remarked the 
practical Clara, eyeing me shrewdly. ' ' Did anyone 
yell Salvation at you i How did you feel ?" 

1 £ Like hiding behind someone' ' ; it was just as well 
to be candid with Clara on some points. 

"The Lord will take all that away. Lay your 
burdens on Jesus, He will carry them," exclaimed 
the Captain. She drew her slight young figure up. 
"I felt tired after the meeting, but it is all gone." 

The Major and Mrs. Evans came in and looked at 
her almost with awe. So must the young stripling 
David have looked when going to meet his foes. I 
was weak and faint from the long, cold ride, and sat 
down with Jessie and Bertha on either side of me. 

' ' Where' s Stevenson V ' asked Clara. 



SALVATION ARMY. 



45 



' ' She' s a staff-captain now. Wheeler is in charge 
at ]STo. 8," responded the Major. 

" She's big enough to take those boys by the coat 
collar and put them out. If all we hear of No. 8 is 
true, she'll have a tough time," laughed Clara. 

' ' Trotter was over to No. 1 last week. They had 
grand meetings there." 

So it continued, this religious gossip, for a half- 
hour. Handles to people' s names were evidently not 
popular, neither was the first name used, but invari- 
ably the last, after the English fashion of designat- 
ing servants. Unless a pronoun followed, I had no 
way of knowing whether a man or woman was re- 
ferred to. 

In a pause, when there seemed nothing else to say, 
the Major thought suddenly to remark: " Let us 
pray." 

Jessie and I knelt together, clasping hands for 
mutual support. Captain Bertha lifted her pale face, 
Clara and the cadet fell flat on their stomachs, and 
the Major prayed. 

" Oh, our Father, be with us this night, we pray 
Thee. Go with us in all our wanderings. (Amen!) 
Convert us to Thy will. (Yes, Jesus!) Be with 
these two young women who have given themselves 
to Thee. (Hallelujah!) Bless all who trust in Thee, 
and lead others to Thy feet — ah. (Praise God.)" The 
Major had got to the end of his string. 

" Follow, follow, I will follow Jesus, 

Anywhere, everywhere, I will follow Him; 
Follow, follow, I will follow Jesus, 
Anywhere he leads me, I will follow Him," 

Sang the Captain, in a rich mezzo-soprano voice. 



46 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



The others joined in, still on their knees or faces, 
and the cadet groaned as if her stomach ached. 
Silence for a brief space, then the clarion voice of 
Clara arose in a style that rivaled a follower of 
Delsarte. 

" 0, God ! ! ! Be with ns this night ! ! (A groan 
from Jessie.) (Praise the Lord !) Let ns see the 
light of Thy heavenly countenance! Thou hast said 
if two or three should meet in company in Thy name 
Thou wouldst be there! (Hallelujah.) We are more 
than two. Thou who canst count the stars, the spar- 
rows as they fall, and canst number the hairs of our 
heads, count this little company assembled in Thy 
name!" (Oh, Jesus!) 

The responses fell about us like hailstones. Jessie 
and I bowed our heads for the storm to pass over. 
Their attitudes, the form of their petition, and the 
responses seemed sacriligous to us. 

While still on our knees the Doxology was sung. 

"Amen!" said the Major, who got up from his 
knees promptly, and began to button his coat. We 
said good-night, were kissed and blessed again, and 
went back on the cable car to get a little baggage, 
promising to return the next day. At Thirty- third 
street, with the understanding that we lived on South 
Park avenue, near there, Jessie and I got off. The 
car was full of people, but the Major and Mrs. Evans 
said, "God bless you," and smiled on us with holy 
fellowship. 

"I want to do something carnal. How do deviled 
crabs and a bottle of claret strike you. I know a 
nice, quiet little restaurant where we can get a pri 
vate room," 



SALVATION ARMY. 



47 



_ " May the Lord bless you!*' responded Jessie. 

" Chestnuts." And then we both laughed and sat 
down on a pile of bricks, and meditated and waited 
for the next car to take us down town. 



CHAPTER IV. 

When it was done, I marveled it was done so 
quickly and easily. 

Contact with the world had sharj)ened my own 
suspicions, and surely none better than these Sal- 
vationists have opportunities to know the devices of 
the wicked. Not knowing where I was to be sent 
among them, I gave an address on South Park 
avenue, below Thirty-third street, a point so near the 
Englewood barracks that a half -hour' s investigation 
would have utterly undone me ; yet it did not occur 
to one of them to doubt my name or pretensions, or 
to satisfy themselves of the truth of my story. 
Jessie and I, too, had frequent lapses of memory 
regarding our antecedents, and had to pull each 
other up with a jerk. 

Perhaps it would not suggest itself to many that 
anyone would have an ulterior motive in joining the 
Salvation Army ; but I doubt if any other religious 
body in the world would have taken us in as one of 
themselves as unquestioningly as did the Salvation 
Army. This betrayed their ignorance, and also 
their sincerity and guilelessness. 

" Oh, what a tangled web we weave," etc. All 
this, instead of elating, depressed me. Here were I 
and my quondam cousin, whose christened name I 



48 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



had even some difficulty in remembering, taken in 
as members of their households by the Salvation 
Army without question, without money or price, 
for as long or short a period as suited our conven- 
ience or caprice. 

It was not without self-reproaches and misgivings 
that I prepared to enter on this career, not knowing 
to what depths of iniquity I would be required to 
descend to gain my ends. The breakfast bell sounded 
like a tambourine, and my heart sank like a plum- 
met. The fate of him ' ' that sitteth in the seat of the 
scornful" would not overtake me, at least. I was 
too depressed, mentally and morally, to be guilty of 
any levity. 

I ate my breakfast in silence, and then went to 
do a little necessary shopping. Never before did 
the display of feminine adornments so attract me. 
It was difficult to go by the shop windows. I longed, 
with all my frivolous nature, for the gewgaws and 
vanities of the world. They had never before 
seemed so attractive as now, when I was putting 
them aside. And then I questioned if the renounc- 
ing of what all women possess does not invest these 
things with a false value. We put them on naturally 
and think nothing of them. Does not the putting 
of them aside defeat its own ends ? I go into this 
minutely, because the Salvationists themselves 
understand and speak of this as a real " cross," not 
lightly to be considered. 

' ' I have nothing that in the least approaches your 
uniform. What shall I wear until I can get a blue 
dress ?" I had asked Captain Bertha, 

"Anything. But wear a plain, ragged dress, 



SALVATION AK^IY. 



49 



rather than a gay one," she had answered. "You 
can not follow your Master in stylish clothes." 

So I put on a black dress that I fished up from 
the rag-bag. The skirt was frayed, the waist worn 
through along the seams, and the front motheaten. 
I packed away all my pretty garments, gave each a 
loving pat, and shut down the lids of the trunks 
with a sigh. An ancient " nigger-bead" jacket 
mounted guard over my shabby dress, and then, be- 
cause I had nothing else, a stylish felt turban was 
swathed in a dingy veil. The officers at Engiewood 
were scrupulously neat, and my get-up was any- 
thing but satisfactory. I naturally expected to feel 
' unable in all this, but I didn't. I felt vindictive, 
and wanted to kick anyone who looked better 
than I. 

But I could revel in white collars and cuffs. My 
valise was packed with these, all the pretty hand- 
kerchiefs I could find, a pair of russet slippers, and 
luxurious toilet articles. Was there anything more? 

A Bible ! 

I had none but those with my name on the fly- 
leaf, and I could not mutilate a Bible. There was 
nothing to be done but go and buy one. While I 
was about it, I had better get one for Jessie and put 
neat and appropriate little inscriptions in each. To 
make the affair look more genuine, I tried a second- 
hand bookstore, thinking to secure a couple of 
sacred volumes that had seen their best days. 

"No one ever asks for a Bible in here," grinned a 
small boy clerk. "They try to sell 'em, though; 
but I guess we'd get stuck on that kind of stock." 
I bought two new pocket Bibles, wrote my own and 

4 



50 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



Jessie's names in them — these being the gift of a 
mythical and affectionate mother and annt of the 
recipients. Then I sat down and waited for Jessie. 

"Jessie," I said reproachfully, "yon were going 
without the Bible dear mamma gave you only this 
morning." 

u Oh, to be sure! Where is it?" She did fall into 
any little invention of mine with such charming 
facility. 

If anything, that dear girl looked more forlorn 
than I. She had on a straw hat trimmed with a 
wreath of little brown dead birds, with the glass eyes 
knocked out of half of them. A gray debeige dress, 
trimmed with black braid, hung limp and discon - 
solate; her bangs had been combed uncompromis- 
ingly back. There were only the big gray eyes 
behind her glasses, the firm, tender mouth, and pale, 
pure face to testify to her worth. And people don't 
look twice at signs like these unless the other signs 
in dress correspond with them. 

We sneaked out the back way, lugging our valises 
over to the cable car, and subsided. We had got 
hilarious, and were disposed to use every moment of 
our natural selves unnaturally. We got off at Sixty- 
second street. 

" Oh, this valise!" I groaned. 

" Cast all your burdens on Jesus. He will carry 
them!" exclaimed Jessie. That girl was shockingly 
irreverent. I dropped that valise, and leaned against 
the fence to laugh. 

" Oh, Leonora, fare thee well!" I apostrophized 
myself. " When you are yourself again, it will be 
somewhat later in the day," 



SALT ATI OX AEMT. 



51 



" Come on. a holy kiss awaits thee!" 
4, Ancl a God bless yon!" 

We collapsed again on the steps. It was getting 
serious, and I looked confidently for an attack of 
hysterics, and donbted my ability to go through 
with it. 

How we got upstairs I don't know. The cadet 
was at home, waiting for us. and ironing. She gave 
us a kiss and the freedom of the place. 

"Now, make yourselves to hum." she said, and 
took her pretty form, figure and face, back to the tiny 
kitchen. After turning around once in the little 
parlor, we concluded to sit still, lest our sails suck all 
the little craft in. 

There was an ingrain carpet on the floor, a red 
plush lounge, a trunk, a writing-table, and a square 
stand. This latter was covered with a cover put on 
on the bias, so the corners hung exactly down the 
sides nearly to the floor. Some books were laid on 
top, also on the diagonal, four piles across the cor- 
ners and one in the middle. I have always liked this 
arrangement, and hate to disturb the symmetry of 
the geometrical problem by lifting a volume from 
its prescribed yjlace. A copy of Sam Jones' Sermons: 
Talmages Wedding Eing: the Eules and Eegula- 
tions for the Government of the Officers of the Sal- 
vation Army, by General Booth: a Holiness Manual; 
a half dozen Bibles, and some copies of that enter- 
prising sheet, the War Cry. lay on the table. 

On the wall were some photographs . Captains Ber- 
tha and Clara had been • ■ taken ' ' as the Two Orphans, 
leaning against each other like sick kittens against 
hot bricks. The cadet was photographed with her 



52 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



mouth shut, so her teeth didn't show; Mrs. Balling- 
ton Booth's sweet face looked from a card un- 
shadowed by a bonnet, and the Marshal's patriarchal 
beard spread all over his shirt front. And that was 
all, except a cheap chromo of the Madonna, which 
hung over the table, and a foreshortening glass 
that ornamented the wall above the geometrically 
arranged bookstand. 

For lack of anything else to do, I took up a Bible 
and read the Sermon on the Mount. It was a good 
thing to do. ' ' Blessed is he that doth hunger and 
thirst after righteousness " got a new meaning for 
me. It seemed to me not improbable that there were 
spiritual heights and depths in the cadet that were 
worthy of being explored. 

But carnal thoughts were uppermost. Where, oh, 
where, were they going to put us all to sleep? 
There were five of us, all grown, all pretty much 
alive and prone to kick. One bed filled a little hall 
bedroom, and there was that red plush lounge — a 
thing of beauty, but its joys might be evanescent. 
Perhaps it was the kind which shuts up like a jack- 
knife after you get into it. Perhaps — but imagina- 
tion failed to go further. There was no space any- 
where to be utilized for a "shake-down." The 
needs of the inner girl were all supplied on a gaso- 
line stove with two burners, and mounted on a soap 
box. Beside this, the kitchen contained a safe piled 
up to the ceiling on top with market baskets, a wash- 
stand, dressing -glass, a table, and two square feet 
of space in which the cadet was that moment revolv- 
ing in so small an orbit that it made one dizzy to 
look at her. Even the little hall running along two 



SALVATION ARMY. 



53 



rooms, its career suddenly stopped by the embryo 
bedroom, was filled with trunks. A linen umbrella 
case and soiled clothes bag were tacked onto the 
bedroom door. The economy of space in that little 
den was something marvelous. It was all clean 
and neat, too, but the conglomeration of household 
necessities made it a little confusing at first. Some- 
one else was quite welcome to the task of solving the 
problem of how a quart was to be got into a pint cup. 

"Now, make yourself to hum," said the cadet, 
reappearing on the scene, on hospitable sentiments 
intent. A saintly smirk had been gashed clear across 
her face and left to dry, regardless of the fact that her 
teeth were left out for a cynical world to gaze on. 

J ust then the Captain and Clara came in, Clara 
with all the breeziness of a windy day. 

' ' Oh, I like you so much better this way ! That' s 
my dear, brave, little soldier of the Lord !" exclaimed 
the Captain. 

"It's ragged; look !" I turned up my elbows. 

" But you feel better than you did last night in 
your good clothes. Now let's see ; any bustle !" 

"No. There are reeds in the skirt, but the dress 
would drag if I took them out. This is all I had 
but what was gay and sinful." 

' ' You can have a uniform made in a day and get 
rid of this. And the bangs ?" 

Regarding my bangs, the Creator issued a man- 
date the day I appeared, and those bangs have been 
there ever since. I felt discouraged over this ; but 
the Captain hastened to reassure me. 

"Mrs. Ballington Booth's hair is just so. It 
won't grow long nor straight. I guess when the 



54 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



Lord made it that way He knew what He was about. 
It's all right, my dear." 

"Oh, Bertie, you're vain. My, didn't you hate 
to pull off that beautiful dress you had on last night % 
Was that the latest style?" asked Clara, giving me 
a cinnamon-bear hug. 

" Clara pretends she is interested in the styles," 
laughed Bertha, indulgently. 

"Iam. I like pretty things. I think this uni- 
form is pretty, but I know Bertie is vain. What 
did you do with all your beaux, Bertie ?" 

"Now, Clara!" 

" Well, girls have beaux. You had them yourself 
before you joined the Army, and I know that Adju- 
tant — well, I won't tell. Come on Bertie. Let's 
get some supper. Bertha would never eat if some- 
one didn't tell her it was time." 

But Bertha held me by her side a moment. She 
had such a caressing manner, such enthusiasm and 
warmth that was free from the least suspicion of 
gush, that she endeared herself to everyone. Her 
arm went around you when near; she kissed one sel- 
dom, and then on the forehead ; and her voice was 
an inspiration. Everything she did was a delight- 
ful duty with her ; her life was a consecration, yet 
she was not austere, but cheerful, loving, and her 
little touches of gay humor were like flecks of gold 
on a warm-colored fabric. She wore her plain, blue 
uniform like a royal garment, and it fitted her round 
form superbly. 

I went out of the room for a moment and passed 
the cadet getting supper and pouring all her soul 
and some hot water into a teapot. When I returned 



SALVATION AKMY. 



55 



the Captain had my turban on her knee, contemplat- 
ing it gravely. 

"Too gay, isn't it?" 

" I was thinking what might be done with it. We 
could take off this red ribbon ; would you care ?" 

Would I care ! Only two days before a milliner 
had expended all she had learned in Paris on that 
hat; but I was renouncing the vanities ! 

" Oh, no; take it to pieces, if you like, and make it 
look decent. " 

' ' It would be awfully stylish if it didn' t have a 
thread of trimming on it," remarked the observant 
Clara. 

"I guess so," said the dear Captain, with a sigh. 
"Put it away. I'll tell you, dear; you shall wear 
a hat of mine until we can send to New York for a 
bonnet. Will you wear our uniform?" anxiously. 

"To be sure; why not? If I am a soldier of the 
Lord, I should wear the outward sign." 

"It takes courage; I found it so; but it is for the 
Lord who died for us." 

I murmured an unintelligible assent. I could not 
entirely agree with the sentiment that the Lord who 
could die for us could wish us to make guys of our- 
selves. 

"Does it avail? " I asked. 

" It avails always against sin and sinners to wear 
an outward sign of righteousness, so that all the 
world may see that we constantly testify for Him. 
But it is a 4 cross ' to be different from others in 
appearance. You must not think it easy to be 
borne." 

"No, it will not be easy; but I will wear it." 



56 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



"Oh, yon are brave !" whispered Clara, giving 
me a hug. She was stronger, mentally and physi- 
cally, than her sister, bnt less sweet. She had a 
rich contralto voice, that vibrated sympathetically, 
yet was she blnnt and practical. She would hug or 
pinch yon in passing; she laughed often and loudly; 
she washed dishes with a vim, and took hold of her 
religion in the same uncompromising way. She had 
fine eyes, a splendid physique, and there was a 
heartiness and wholesomeness about her that at- 
tracted one irresistibly. I do not know what I had 
expected in these Salvationists, but I certainly had 
not been prepared for these two strong, lovely types, 
found in Bertha and Clara Leyh. 

The ' ' Cadet ' ' had got supper, and we went out. I 
squeezed around between the safe and washstand, and 
sat down at the table, which was pushed against the 
wall to make room. The Captain said a brief grace, 
and Clara poured out the tea. There were bread 
and butter, fried potatoes, and grapes — all good and 
abundant, and seasoned with cheerful conversation. 
They were girls with limited education, but, though 
narrow, they were high, which is certainly better 
than being broad and low. I can not explain them 
any better than to say that their devotion to a high 
purpose had lifted them from the common people, to 
whom they belonged. But they still retained enough 
of that to eat with their knives. 
„ When the meal was finished each one knelt at her 
plate and returned thanks silently. 

" Half -past seven!" 

" It is time to go to the evening meeting," said the 
Captain. 



SALVATIONS" ABMY. 



57 



Now was the time. My heart fairly leaped into 
my throat, and I gave one last despairing glance at 
Jessie. Clara caught the look on the fly, and 
laughed. 

"Oh. if yon could just see yourself! Yon look 
as if yon thought yon were to be murdered. " 
"Weil, I feel like it." 

We hurried on our hats and wraps, the hideous 
blue bonnets being carefully adjusted before the 
mirror and the strings pulled out . 

"Let us kneel down and ask help for this meet- 
ing." said Bertha, simply. She took my hand and 
sank on her knees. 

'•Oh, our Heavenly Father, we do love Thee. We 
do trust in Thy precious grace. Help us. we pray 
Thee, to walk so in the sight of men that they may 
see Thy countenance reflected in our lives. Go with 
us. we pray Thee. Help us to bring precious souls 
to the feet of Jesus. Now, our Father, we leave all 
things in Thy hands, which cloeth all things well. 
\Ye have no fear. We can not fail. Thou art with 
us. Amen!" 

" Come along," she said, a moment later. " Don't 
be afraid; our Father is with us." It was all quite 
simple with her. I think it would have grown so 
with me. but for the cadet, who, chameleon like, 
took on five shades more of santification from her 
nearnpss to Bertha. She amused even Clara. 

"No, you mustn't be ashamed, you know. He 
wasn't ashamed, of you!" said the cadet, sweetly. 

*• That's right, Millie. The cadet always has a 
word in season." laughed Clara, and Bertha relaxed 
her sweet seriousness. Clara whirled me off my 



58 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



feet down those unchristian stairs, guiltless of a 
railing. 

"I've got the grace of God right here," she said, 
striking her breast. "You can't tell anybody what 
it is who hasn't got it. Whatever I am, I am at the 
rate of forty miles an hour. I' m so happy it takes 
my breath. I want to make a noise for the Lord 
all the time. My ! I think I'll burst some time." 

She began to sing the ' ' Lily of the Valley " softly. 

" Clara !" said a gentle voice from behind. 

"I can't help it, singing on the street. I'm so 
happy . ' ' 

£ ' We have to be careful not to excite comment to 
ourselves. People notice everything we do. Of 
course, when we march that isn't ourselves, it's the 
Lord' s work, but we never talk or laugh aloud on 
the streets at other times." 

We went gaily on through the semi-dark streets, 
unobserved. Clara pinched and squeezed me in the 
exuberance of her happiness, and trod the earth 
lightly in time to some inaudible music singing itself 
in her own heart. 



CHAPTER V. 

The hall was only two blocks away, on Englewood 
avenue. When we got there we found it half filled 
with soldiers and spectators, waiting quietly. The 
soldiers or converts were grouped about the plat- 
form, in readiness for some ceremony, and our advent 
caused an instant commotion among them. There 
were fully twenty -five of them, chiefly women, 



SALVATION AKMY. 



59 



children, and beardless young men. Two or three 
wore the uniform, others the red guernseys, with 
£ ' Salvation Army ' ' woven across the breast in yel- 
low letters. All had caps and badges or some out- 
ward sign of their public professions. The girls and 
women, while not in uniform, wore straight, plain 
dresses of some dark stuff, their only ornaments 
being spotless collars and cuffs. This refinement of 
cleanliness emanated from Bertha, who had herself 
that virtue as well as godliness. They all looked to 
her as to a young prophet, and joined enthusiastic- 
ally in the chorus she struck up at the door while 
we filed in after her: 

' ' Hallelujah ! hallelujah ! 
I'm glad I'm in the Army of the Lord. 

Hallelujah! hallelujah! 
I've buckled on the armor, shield and sword." 

. ' £ Good evening James. How is your cold — better V ' 

" The Lord has taken it all." 

"Praise the Lord! He doeth all things well. 
But remember, sometime He may cure you for eter- 
nity. That will be well too." 

" God bless you !" he answered, fervently. 

" Are you happy to-night ?" she asked a German 
woman. " It is because you didn't speak for Him 
that you went away sad last night." 

" I speak only German !" she murmured. 

" He understands all tongues and people. There 
are many Germans here, too, who might be saved if 
they heard of Jesus in their own dear language. We 
love our own tongue and people. I know how it is; 
God made it so; and all speech to Him is alike." She 
gave that simple peasant woman a loving look, and 



60 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



turned to a little child who was tagging at her 
skirts. 

" Well ? You want to march, and mamma won't 
let you ? Mamma knows best. The dear Jesus wants 
little children to obey the mamma first. He will not 
be hurt when He knows you love Him. ' ' 

The little one toddled off, quite contentedly, to her 
mother, in the audience. 

" Have you decided to wear the uniform, Jolm ?" 
to a young soldier who wore only badges. He mut- 
tered something about his mother objecting. 

" What do you think ?" 

' £ I think I should wear it. My heart tells me to, 
but my mother is proud and fears what people would 
say. I love my mother." 

' ' That is right. But you are a man, and can choose. 
Your mother can not stand between you and God on 
the last day. Which is of the most importance, 
your conscience or your mother's foolish pride?" 

"I will wear it !" he said, after a moment, his teeth 
shutting hard. 

"Gently. God never intended we should defy 
our earthly parents. Talk with her; show her how 
you feel; don't go against her wishes in that spirit." 

He softened, and the tears came into his eyes. ' ' I 
am so reticent, and can not speak with her when she 
does not understand, but I will try." 

" God bless you ! Ask His help, and it will come." 

So she went about, from one to another, giving 
counsel and admonition and the completest under- 
standing. How their eyes followed her ! 

' ' Come away!' ' she said at last. ' ' Get your tam- 
bourines and drums. Now " 



SALVATION ARMY. 



61 



They all knelt where they stood at her signal. 

" Now, our Heavenly Father, bless us and prosper 
us in this Thy blessed service. Amen — Amen!" 

■ 6 Amen, ' ' came in a volley from thirty voices. The 
audience looked on — some amused, but all quiet 
and respectful. Bertha picked up a tambourine and 
headed the procession into the street. An ethereal 
smile played about her lips, and the little child who 
had wanted to march slipped off her mothers lap 
and touched her garments as she passed. I thought 
of the daughter of the warrior Gileadite going to 
meet her father "with timbrel and with song," and 
scarcely noticed where we were going until Jessie 
touched me. 

"Good heavens! Do we have to march the 
streets?" she whispered. I awoke with a start, and 
realized where we were. We had both forgotten 
that this privilege of parading the streets was one of 
the special attractions of Englewood, and I had been 
too absorbed in Bertha to notice anything else. But 
now I was fully alive to it. 

Fifty spectators had gathered on the sidewalk 
about the hall; imps of boys, with their hands in their 
pockets, and grinning idiotically; young men, 
slouching in the shadows that lurked about the door- 
way; women gazing curiously in cynical fashion. 
They all danced before my eyes in the half -dark 
street, or were boldly outlined against the broad 
band of light that streamed from the open door. A 
curious numbness stole over me, and a jovial pinch 
given by Clara was scarcely felt. My eyes were hot 
and staring vacantly at a long row of lights that 
twinkled far down the avenue. All feeling was gone, 



62 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



and I stood there like a wooden figure, watching the 
Captain again as she marshaled her host. She stood 
between two dim files. Clara and the cadet, Millie 
North, led with tambourines; then came Jessie and 
I, and after us a line of soldiers, with a dozen small 
boys bringing up the rear. A tambourine was in 
my pulseless hand, and the tenor drum was just 
behind. 

A blare of martial music! Instantly every sense 
was quickened into intense life; my blood bounded 
to my head and suffocated me; the nerves thrilled in 
every part of my body; I saw ten thousand visions, 
heard a million sounds; the air was surcharged with 
some intoxicating, choking atmosphere that lay in 
my lungs like smoke. Every sensation scintillated 
from an intensified consciousness; my limbs moved 
mechanically, and the first real thing I saw was the 
Captain' s pale, exalted face and uplifted hands. 

This is the power of ridicule. I, who had walked 
the earth like a goddess in my conscious strength 
and pride, knew now what the opinions of men 
meant to me. I walked with the despised, the ridi- 
culed, as one of them; the public branded me as a 
' 'crank, ' ' and it burned and blistered, and roused hate 
and fierce resentment, and distrust of my own worth. 
The moon and stars and all the peopled planets were 
as nothing to my intense bitterness. Why, I could 
have hated a stone wall down; that could crumble, 
but feeling could live always and be strong — stronger 
than God. 

It is God! Bertha's face came between me and 
the dark sky. Love and hate, good and evil, this 
makes all the difference between God and the devil 



SALVATION ARMY. 



63 



— between liberty and imprisonment — and I was in 
prison. A centnry rolled over me in an instant, and 
what availed my hate? What availed her love? The 
skies for her were serene. She was this mnch hap- 
pier than I, that a little ridicule and scorn and walk- 
ing apart from her fellows could not darken her 
skies. I was not like her, nor wished to be, but it 
hurt me to have to acknowledge that in this she was 
larger than I. And then I resented my provincial 
soul. 

But through it all— all this analysis and self-com- 
munings — were the real physical discomforts. The 
eyes of the houses, gas lighted and insistent, were 
on me; my feet were like lead; the streets were 
thronged with people and ablaze with electric lights. 
Everybody stopped for a moment; clerks came to the 
doors of stores; passengers on the street cars gazed 
out; upper windows of the houses were thrown up. 
One girl giggled, and a man of a metaphysical turn 
of mind studied us from a corner. Everybody felt 
the liveliest sardonic interest in us; they seemed 
calling my name, and the enthusiasm of my com- 
panions fell on my spirit like an ice-cold shower- 
bath. 

Clara led off in her clear, strong voice : 

" When the stars of the elements (?) are falling, 

And the moon shall be turned into blood — Hallelujah! 

And the children of the Lord 

Are returning home to God, 
Blessed be the name of the Lord." 

"Falling, falling, falling," her strong alto repeated, 
while the strain was carried high and clear. 
Everything was "falling" about me. I dragged 



64 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



along, my tambourine hanging limply at my side. 
There was some gross injustice going on, against 
which I struggled vainly. I was suffering for some 
sin not my own, some inherited supersensitiveness. 
I looked across at J essie ; the blood had forsaken 
her face, and she was wilted like a frost-stricken 
flower. Poor little Jessie ! There was an idle, deri- 
sive laugh in the crowd, and my spine just melted 
down into calves' -foot jelly. Oh, if some 'friendly 
coal hole would please open and let me percolate 
through! 

Then followed one of their heroic songs that bears 
within itself its own excuse for being: 

MARCHING ON TO GLORY. 



Tune — " Bringing in the Sheaves." 

We are marching onward in this earthly warfare, 
Though the battle's fierce, yet victory's our cry ; 

We are sure to conquer, Jesus is our leader, 
With His power to help us we the foe defy. 

CHORUS. 

We are marching on. (Repeat.) 
On our way to glory, 
We are marching on. 

Gladly to the rescue we will hasten onward, 
Precious souls are dying round us day by day ; 

Snatching them from sin and from the ways of sorrow, 
Thus we follow Jesus in tlr v od old way. 

When the battle's ended on the judgment morning, 
And the ransomed gather, thei v 1 ^ar Lord to see, 

If unto the end the conflict we he. carried, 
We shall hear the welcome " Come ye unto Me." 



SALVATION AEMY. 



65 



" Come to Jesus !" yelled a small boy. The Cap- 
tain smiled divinely, and sang : 

' ' Come to Jesus, 
Come to Jesus, 
Come to Jesus, 
Just now." 

"Ah there, Salvation!" yelled another. Clara 
struck her tambourine and began a chorus. The 
garish lights became dim ; we stopped singing, the 
drums beat a tattoo, and the tambourines jingled the 
time. 

4 ' Oh, I' m late ! Give me a tambourine, somebody. ' ' 
I surrendered mine with alacrity to a straight, lithe, 
fair-haired girl, who was dressed in a gray skirt and 
black jersey. She was pleasing and graceful, and ut- 
terly oblivious of all that tried my soul. 

The lame, the halt, and almost the blind, were with 
us. A bow-legged man beat the tenor drum ; a wall- 
eyed boy stared at me across the ranks, and a low- 
browed one favored me with a saintly scowl ; and 
though we advanced on the enemy two-thirds of the 
chins in the crowd beat a cowardly retreat. We 
were a straggling, inconsequent band, but Ave did 
what we could — we marched and made a noise for 
the idle passer-by to laugh at, to wonder at, to glory 
in, or revile, according to his humor — and they did all 
these. As for me, I felt like a subject under a sur- 
geon's knife, sacrificing some member in the interests 
of science ; also, like .lie surgeon, keenly analyzing 
and comparing. Nothing but the intense interest 
of a psychological study or the grace of God would 
have carried me tfei ough it. 

How far do you think we inarched 1 Exactly two 

5 



66 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



blocks down Wentworth avenue and back to the 
hall, but I have passed over shorter years. We fell 
into single file at the door, the Captain facing us, 
and began a song as we entered : 

"The grace of God, 
It is so sweet — 
The grace of God, 
It is so sweet — 
The grace of God, 
It is so sweet — 
The grace, the grace, the grace of God !" 

The people all helped her, and she followed this by : 

"The power of God, 
It is so strong." 

It seemed as if the grace and power and omnipo- 
tence of the Heavenly Father wrapped her about. 

The house was filled by this time with a quietly 
expectant audience. If it were hard to march in the 
gas-lit darkness, imagine what it must have been to 
walk onto a platform, with a shouting, bizarre, fa- 
natical crowd, a target for the amused interest of an 
idle audience. After this the deluge might come. I 
went up with the rest — pulled dear little Jessie and 
her wreath of little dead, drooping birds u~p after me, 
and sank into a chair in the front row. The house was 
crowded to the doors ; fully 300 people were present. 
There were curious glances, smiles, giggles, and a 
good many exasperating grins. I blinked my eyes 
once at the dazzling faces and scintilating eyes and 
then grew impervious as gutta-percha. It was only 
for a moment, and then we turned our backs on that 
audience, and the Captain prayed. 

£ ' Oh, our Heavenly Father, grant that we may be 
the means of saving souls this night. (Amen !) Grant 



SALVATION AEMY. 



67 



that someone in this house may come to know the 
precious love of Jesus." (Oh, I'm so happy !) (Halle- 
lujah.) The responses were flying about us. There 
were groans and sighs and tears and swaying 
bodies and tortured hair. Twenty-five of us knelt, 
or bowed down, or sprawled all over the platform, 
and our ideas, too, sprawled all over the place. The 
responses would have completely disarmed an 
esthetic devil, and I believe he is esthetic. 

I peeped around at the audience and had all my 
fears confirmed. A few in the front rows knelt or 
sat with bowed heads, but back of these was an alert 
crowd. They were silent, but singularly alive to 
the fun, snapping their eyes, making comical faces, 
craning their necks, and on the qui vim for the next 
antic. The spectators were quite as good as the 
play. 

Someone else was praying by this time, a lusty 
young soldier, who was hammering at the gates of 
paradise like the village blacksmith on his anvil. I 
looked for them to fly open at his bidding. 

"Oh, God! Come right down to-night ! (Amen!) 
Bring the power with you ! (Yes, God.)" Was it 
something portable % " Convict these people of sin ! 
Make them see how hideous they are in Thy sight ! 
(Amen !) Give them no peace, no sleep, no rest, 
until they have found Jesus and fallen at His feet." 

The fellow' s conceit was something sublime ; 
nothing redeemed it but his earnestness — nothing 
excused it but his ignorance and bigotry. Two 
hundred years ago he would have helped burn a 
heretic. 

I shifted my position because my knees began to 



68 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



ache ; then my feet went to sleep. When the noise 
of the responses was loudest, I kicked my toes 
against the floor to wake them up, but no one 
noticed it. The "Amens" got mixed up in my 
brain with some unorthodox expressions. If I didn't 
say something soon I'd scream, so I said "Amen" 
in the wrong place and in a sepulchral tone. Jessie 
giggled, by which I knew her strained feelings had 
given way with a healthy snap at last ; and some- 
body on the other side gave my hand an admonitory 
squeeze, but I felt relieved. 

' ' Amen — Amen— Praise God — Oh, Salvation. ' ' We 
were on our feet again and borne along on the waves 
of a bounding chorus led by Clara's voice : 

"Oh, Salvation, full and free, 

I have got it, and it just suits me ; 
I've plunged into the crimson flow, 
The blood of Jesus cleanseth me as white as snow." 

It was impossible to resist Clara and her enthu- 
siasm. She walked back and forth swinging her 
lithe, strong, young body rythmically and beating 
her tambourine like some dancing girl. The audi- 
ence helped her, and the tambourines and feet of 
the devout joined in the chorus. I didn't know the 
song, but I stamped my feet and looked idiotic, and 
it served the purpose. 

" Now somebody speak for Jesus; come along," 
said the Captain. Her simplest word was listened 
to respectfully. 

A soldier got up and mumbled : "I love Je-sus, 
so I do," with a combative shake of the head. 
"An' I ain't ashamed of it, so I ain't. You folks 
sittin' back there ought to be ashamed of your- 



SALVATION AKMY. 



69 



selves, denying Je-sus. I'm going to speak fur Him 
every time." 

" Praise the Lord. Now somebody else." 

"I'm glad I've joined the Army (snuff). I'm glad 
I'm here. One night the Captain said: 'Every- 
body that wants to be saved put up the right hand, 
and something jerked my hand like there was a 
string tied to it (snuff). But there wasn't any string 
tied to it. It was the spirit of God, my friends and 
fellow-citizens It was the spirit of God" (snuff) 
(snuff). This soldier was afflicted with catarrh. 

"Hallelujah. How many feel a string pulling 
them up around this altar now ? When you feel 
that way don t draw back, but come up and have 
your precious souls saved. Now somebody else." 

Another got up and shouted and pounded, and a 
falsetto- voiced stripling in a Guernsey squeaked : 

"I'm glad I'm saved. I'm glad I'm here to-night. 
I'm glad everybody's glad." 

" Can't you say a little word ?" said the Captain, 
leaning over me. Everybody but Jessie and I was 
purple in the face with responses. I shook my 
head. 

"Oh, you would feel so much better if you 
would." She turned away grieved. 

I remember that a collection was taken up, another 
long prayer in solo, quartette, and chorus, some 
more singing, and it was all over. No one had been 
saved. This seemed to me very marvelous. 

Nay, but it was hot all over. The Lord's elect 
gathered around us, and were extending the right 
hand of fellowship. 

" These are two dear sisters in Christ who will live 



70 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



with us awhile, and then go out to fight for Jesus, 5 ' 
said Bertha. That is all the introduction we got, 
but it sufficed. 

" God bless you !" was the unanimous resolution. 

Then we got out under the little twinkling stars, 
and I tried to get near Jessie, to utter one carnal 
word, but could not; the cadet had her, and Clara 
walked off with me. If somebody would say some- 
thing ordinary ! The atmosphere was too intense. 

' 1 Wasn't it glorious % We do have so much power 
here. Bertha's talk went right home." 

"Did it? I didn't notice she talked much. It 
was all so confusing." 

"Oh, yes; she always reads a chapter and explains 
it. Sometimes I'm too happy to know what is go- 
ing on." 

"Yes; I was too happy, I guess." 

Oh, if I could just give way to my "perturbed feel- 
ings ' ' to Jessie ! When we went to bed perhaps — 

But nay — Bertha divided us. The problem was 
solved. The Captain slept between Jessie and me 
in the bed, Clara rolled up on the red plush lounge, 
and the cadet went downstairs to sleep with an old 
lady who occupied the lower flat. 

All at once % No, before sleep descended on us 
Clara counted the collection, which consisted of $2.40, 
a loaf of bread, an apple pie, and a quart can of 
milk; and then we had family prayers, kneeling in the 
virgin fairness of five Mother Hubbard night-dresses 
around the little table. 

After these ablutions of the soul we packed our- 
selves carefully in bed, feet all one way. I bal- 
anced myself exactly on the side railing of the bed 



SALVATION AEMY. 



71 



and slept. And the evening and the morning were 
the first day. 



CHAPTER VI. 

When I awoke the next morning it was some 
unconscionable hour. Everybody was asleep but 
Jessie, who had an accusing conscience, or something 
that made repose impossible during the early hours 
of the morning. I can usually sleep until the crack 
of doom or a breakfast-bell awakens me, but even 
for me our present hostesses rather overdid the mat- 
ter. Jessie was moving about the little kitchen, 
making a toilet. I could hear Clara gently snoring 
about ten feet away in the tiny parlor, and the 
Captain was sleeping beside me as placidly as a 
child. 

' ' Nine o' clock, ' ' said Jessie. ' £ Get up." 

"The devil has lots of time to get in his work 
while the servants of the Lord slumber and sleep," 
I answered. 

As there seemed nothing to be gained by getting 
up, I lay still and viewed the smiling landscape o'er. 
I pulled aside a muslin curtain from a window above 
our bed, and obtained a glimpse of a blacksmith 
shop, a railroad track, and a black baby playing in 
the mud. A little shred of blue sky above was veiled 
in smoke from a snorting engine. 

Inside, the horizon was bounded on three sides by 



72 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



an array of wearing apparel, straight skirts (six of 
them), and basques trimmed with box-plaits from the 
shoulder — all "deeply, darkly, beautifully blue." 
The mis en scene was diversified by the sombre sugar- 
scoop bonnets hanging disconsolately by the strings. 
It was such a tiny little room, exactly long enough 
for the bed it contained, and having just one foot of 
space along the side to spare. My valise wouldn't 
go between the bed and wall cross ways. From 
where I lay I could have made my choice of an en- 
tire outfit and pull every garment down on me with- 
out troubling to get out of bed. The door into the 
hall was left open, so it would be possible to turn 
around while dressing. 

A full view of the little parlor was obtained 
through the doorway, but the furniture it contained 
had to be left to the imagination or the memory, 
because each and every piece was buried under an 
avalanche of clothes, shed from five feminine forms 
while preparing for bed. A trunk would probably be 
revealed when excavated; a little table was hopelessly 
submerged; three or four chairs took on abnormal 
shapes; and everywhere odd shoes and hose floun- 
dered around hopelessly, having lost their mates. 
They were all so nearly of the same size and shape 
that I could only trust to good luck to stand in my 
own again. Some unknown sixth sense would prob- 
ably serve to put each girl in her OAvn clothing 
again. 

Yet in this crowded space their hospitality was 
something beautiful. I could not pretend to fathom 
it. Six hours later it had grown immeasurably 
deeper. 



SALT ATI OX ARMY. 



73 



Suddenly on the stillness of the morning air a song 
broke forth: 

( • My sins are washed away 

By the blood of the Lamb; 
My sins are washed away 

By the blood of the Lamb — 
Washed away, washed away, 

Trashed away, by the blood of the Lamb." 

Clara was awake ! I peeped around, expecting to 
see the law of natural selection applied to those 
clothes, but she wasn't even up. She lay on the 
lounge, her strong hands clasped above her close- 
cropped dark head, her bright gray eyes smiling at 
me roguishly, and singing at the top of her voice. 

'•Do you do that often?' 5 I asked, admiringly. 

• • vyhat sing \ Yes, I guess I sing nearly all the 
time. Whyf 

" Oh. nothing, only I never happened to hear any- 
one sing in bed before. I should think it would be 
a little difficult. " 

"If you have a song in your heart it's harder to 
keep it back." 

"People who love the Lord are apt to be noisy 
about it. That is the reason we shock orthodox 
Christians." said Bertha, who had been awakened 
by our chatter. She was lying among the pillows, 
looking exhausted, very pale, and fragile; and then 
I saw how very weak she must be, and how great the 
-train of this work was on her fragile body. The 
light trained too fiercely, and some day the sacred 
oil would all have been consumed. 

Just then the cade ttripped upstairs, in her robe de 
nuit and her saintly smirk. 

"When you are really converted," began this 



74 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



daring aspirant for official honors, bnt Clara broke in: 
" Listen to Millie, and profit by her teachings." 
It would take something more than salvation to sub- 
due Clara and her sense of humor. She pitched a 
pillow at Millie, dodged one I threw at her, and 
then followed a pillow light that brought back old 
school-days. Bertha lay back, smiling, and dear 
little Jessie stood behind the door out of the way of 
our missiles. 

We got up and scrambled into some clothes. I am 
not certain, to this day, that I got my own. The 
weather had turned cold, and there was no stove up. 
The old lady who lived in the lower flat invited us 
down to get warm, and three of us went, the cadet 
improving the shining hour by making some toast at 
her neighbor' s fire. 

"Ah, your little, white hands! They never did 
any work, I know," gushed the old lady to me, 
and Jessie added: 

4 ' Well, I should think not! Bertie — why her little 
hands have just been loaded with rings all her life. 
She is just out of boarding-school, only nineteen. 
And the way aunty pets her, you would think she 
was a delicate little flower." 

I have an idea that Jessie will write a book some 
day, after the school of romantic fiction, she -does 
tell beautiful lies so glibly. 

"Then it's all the more noble of her. So many 
girls who are raised like her — 6 lilies of the field ' — are 
content to stay so. So you are going to join the 
Army? Have you converted anybody yet?" 

"I don't know. There is one talented young 
man. He used to be so gay, but somehow he always 



SALTATION ARMY. 



gets serious now when lie comes near me. Perhaps 
he is experiencing a change of heart." I sighed 
hopefully, and looked far, far away, beyond Jessie' s 
admonitory eye. 

"Dear heart! So young, and giving yourself to 
God. The Captain is a saint — just like those who 
died long ago. Don't you think so?" 

"Indeed she is!" I said, cordially. 

Having got warm, we went back upstairs to break- 
fast. Clara had made some coffee on the little gas- 
oline stove. I looked in vain for a beefsteak or some 
other adjunct to a modern breakfast, but nothing 
else was forthcoming. Grace was said, and then we 
discussed our bill of fare. I ordered coffee and 
toast, and then took toast and coffee for the second 
course. It was such a tiny coffee-pot, too. The last 
cup of the five was only half full, and Bertha 
reached her hand for that, saying: 

" Give me that half -cup, Clara; I have been drink- 
ing too much coffee lately, anyhow." 

You can have no conception of the simplicity with 
which she said this. There was no ostentation of 
self-denial. At any time, on an instant's notice, 
this or that provided for the common good was re- 
jected in anohter's favor. She did not protest, but 
others always accepted her sacrifices, knowing that 
to her they were not sacrifices. It was something I 
was not capable of myself, and it humbled me. 

' i How did you feel last night, when you marched 
the first time?" asked Clara. 

"Like dropping through a coal-hole!" I answered; 
and Jessie looked eloquent. There was a hearty 
laugh from everybody. 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



£ ' That' s just the way I felt, ' ' said Clara. £ ' It was 
up in Minneapolis, right where I was born and 
raised, and all my old schoolmates were on the side- 
walk, looking at me and laughing. Once when I 
passed a group of them, I put my handkerchief to 
my face. But after I had got through that march 
I didn't care. I could meet everyone but one fellow, 
who used to come to our house, and I thought if he 
saw me then, in that uniform, I would just drop 
dead, and there he was when I got home, leaning 
over the gate, waiting for me. He asked me if I had 
gone crazy, and has never been back since. Why, I 
have old schoolmates now who won't speak to me 
on the street. Some of them say they wouldn't care 
if I am a Salvationist if I didn 1 1 wear the uniform. 
I tell you, this dress and bonnet is a 'cross' that 
isn't easy to carry. But I don't care now what peo- 
ple say," with fine scorn and an easy laugh. 

" Do you think them necessary?" 

' ' For me, yes. People feel differently about them. 
Some of the converts we make go into the churches, 
and that's right for them; but others have no peace 
until they put on the Army uniform. We work in 
different ways for the glory of God, just as He ap- 
points. I felt I must do this. I don't care what 
people say now, and I' m willing to go anywhere in 
His name." 

" You say some go into the churches. I thought 
all your converts had to put on the uniform." 

" Oh, no. We have made sixty converts here, and 
perhaps not one of them will go into the Army, ex- 
cept as soldiers. They may all join churches. I'll 
tell you how it is," said Bertha. ' ' Churches get up 



SALTATION ARMY. 



77 



reTiTals to build their congregations up as miicli as 
anything else, but we think nothing of making a 
church, but only of saving souls. After they are 
saved, they may worship with us, or go to any 
denomination they believe in. Jesus Christ, the Son 
of , God, is in all creeds. What do little things matter? 
We have no creed except Jesus Christ, the Son of 
God and Redeemer of men." 

" But how do you expect to prosper?" I asked, in 
amazement. 

' ' Prosper?' ' with a contented little laugh. ' 1 'In 
my Father s house are many mansions. ' Oh, we shall 
prosper! The Lord will care for his servants. Let 
me tell you, dear: 

" Twenty-four years ago General Booth stopped 
preaching in a Methodist church in England. He 
was converted when only a boy, and used, even then, 
to go into the streets, making a pulpit of a barrel or 
old wagon-bed. There he would get the roughs 
around him and pray, and he converted some of 
them. Afterward he went to college and became a 
minister, but his methods of conducting meetings 
were so odd that he was criticised. He thought and 
prayed over it, and always it seemed to him there 
were souls out in the dark, the low and vile, who 
would not come to the respectable churches. Christ 
went into the highways and byways and gathered 
the multitudes about him. His disomies preached 
to the people in the streets, and then General Booth 
knew this was the way to reach them. ' The Lord 
will provide,' he said. He gave up everything, his 
church, his household goods and income, and, with 
liis wife and little children, walked to the next man- 



78 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



ufacturing town, trusting in God to supply all Ms 
daily needs. 

' 4 Afterward he came to London and preached in 
Whitechapel, in the East End, and thousands came 
to hear him who had never been in a church. After 
awhile the church people tried to get him to come 
back, but the poor people and reclaimed criminals 
prayed him to stay with them. No one had ever 
come to them before like this. A little band of con- 
verts was gathering around him, and it grew so that 
some of these went away and preached themselves. 
They called themselves Christian missionaries at 
first, but so many came that it got to be an army. 
Then they took the name Salvation Army — an 
army to save souls, fight for Jesus, and vanquish the 
devil. 

"Within five years an organization was perfected, 
until now there are officers, cadets, and soldiers in 
every part of the world, and the work of every corps 
is reported weekly to headquarters. Altogether, 
there are 2,500 corps, and every officer literally de- 
pends on the Lord for his daily bread. There is 
no fund, no endowment, no anything. The divisional 
and staff officers are supported by a tithe of what 
the corps collect. All we have is just what the 
people wish to give us." 

u How is it when you open a new corps ?" 

"I came here last February with a lieutenant. 
We had no money at all. The Major puid the rent 
for the hall for one month out of the divisional funds, 
but we had to pay this back as soon as we could. 
For three weeks we marched the streets alone, she 
and I. We had no furniture, and slept in the hall 



SALVATION AEMY. 



79 



on the floor. People who attended the meetings 
learned how we lived and brought ns things to eat. 
Now we have these three rooms furnished, all out of 
our collections. But every place is not so good as 
Englewood." 

" You will have something to begin on if you are 
changed." She smiled. 

u Oh, no, my little one. This furniture belongs to 
the corps, and is left here. I will be sent somewhere 
else in a month or two, and it may be to open a new 
corps, where I shall have not even straw to sleep on. 
I have only what I can take in my trunk — just my 
clothes and books. Everything here belongs to the 
Army. What is in the Major's house belongs to 
this division. None of us have anything. Every- 
thing collected and expended has to be accounted 
for each week to headquarters. All in this house is 
yours as much as it is mine, while you are here." 

" Don't you get a salary?" 

" If I can collect it I get six dollars a week, and a 
cadet gets her clothes and expenses. I pay the 
hall and house rent — $35 a month. Then the coal 
and gas bills are paid, and I get what there is left 
up to six dollars a week, to live on. If anything more 
is collected it goes to the Army fund, to found train- 
ing homes, rescue bands, and gutter brigades, and to 
extend the work of the Army. Major Evans gets 
one-tenth of all collected by the corps in this divis- 
ion, to live on, pay traveling expenses, and start new 
corps. We have made sixty converts here, and the 
people are liberal, so we make our expenses. Some 
places they don't do that. I have slept on the bare 
floor in winter, lived on bread and water, and have 



80 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



been mistreated by rough crowds. I expect, all my 
life, to be like my Master — have no certain place to 
lay my head — all my life in His service. Let us pray." 

I knew now what Bertha had meant when she said 
that all they had was the Lord's. 

We got up from the breakfast-table, where not a 
shining vestige of toast was left, and went into the 
little frozen parlor. 

' ' Let us read in the Old Testament for the morning 
lesson. There is much there to learn," said Bertha. 
"But not of the generations. It seems very useless 
to read that somebody begat somebody else through 
dozens of chapters. That is not important like 
learning the joys of righteousness. Let us begin 
with the Psalms." So she began: 

' ' Blessed is the man that walketh not in the coun- 
sel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sin- 
ners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 

" But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on 
His law doth he meditate night and day. 

" And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers 
of water, thatbringeth forth his fruit in season; his 
leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth 
shall prosper." 

So read she on. And at the end she folded her 
little frail hands and, kneeling, prayed: 

"Oh, our Heavenly Father, still all our doubts. 
We know that whatsoever we do in Thy name shall 
prosper. We delight in Thy law and meditate on 
it night and day, and Thou wilt see that the tree is 
planted and watered. Dear Lord, we do love Thee; 
we do trust Thy gracious promises. Help us to do 
Thy will and believe always in Thy word. Amen." 



SALVATION ARMY. 



81 



The cadet and Clara followed with short prayers 
and then we got up. It was eleven o'clock 
and cold as Greenland, and I put on my jacket 
to keep warm, and helped the cadet wash the 
dishes. 

The economy of space in those three little rooms 
was truly amazing. When the bed was made the 
hats, jackets, and wraps were piled on it; boxes and 
packages were shoved under the tables, market 
baskets went on top of the safe, and actually enough 
space was cleared to turn round in. 

We did absolutely nothing all that morning but 
talk. It was religious gossip every word of it. They 
talked of this corps and that; of General Booth, the 
Marshal, and Major Evans; of " Happy Harry," 
" Trotter"; of experiences and conversions. Now 
and then Clara would break out into a song or the 
cadet would interpose a word of admonition. The 
time dragged wearily by. There was no morning 
paper, no busy, bustling, clanging world about us, 
and the droning silence and inactivity made me rest- 
less. Jessie sat with her lips shut very tightly and 
darned a pair of hose diligently, while I walked 
about like a lion in my small cage. The inspiration 
of the early morning, when Bertha had talked, was 
gone, and there was only a monotonous time to get 
through with in some way. 

" Do you ever buy a paper ?" I asked, at last. 

" A paper?" exclaimed Bertha, surprised. 

" Yes; a morning paper." 

"We read nothing but the War Cry. The papers 
are filled with politics and records of crime " 
' 6 What is your politics V ' 

6 



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FACTS ABOUT THE 



' ' The Army is our party and Jesus Christ our can- 
didate," she said, simply. 

" Oh, Captain, that was such a beautiful thought ! 
Put it into your talk to-night !" exclaimed the cadet. 

" The Lord will tell me what to say when the time 
comes. It is because ministers study how to say 
things that they drive people from the churches." 
She returned to her Bible, and was occupied all the 
morning with that, with the rules and regulations, 
or some correspondence. But she did not forget us. 
She looked up once in a long while and smiled. 
Once she came over to me and smoothed my hair. 

" Poor little Birdie ! It isn't easy. But you can 
serve the Lord in other ways, you know. Don't try 
to force your inclinations. Because this is best for 
my soul it may not be so for yours. God and His 
work are as wide as the universe." 

What minister of the Gospel would have said as 
simply as she that another' s way might be as good 
and pleasing in the sight of God as his way and the 
way of his creed % Her bigotry had breadth as well 
as height. 

But after she returned to her own beautiful 
thoughts I sighed and looked at Jessie; Jessie 
looked at me, and we both looked at the carpet. 

" Praise God, I'm saved! 

Praise God, I'm saved! 
Oh, come and join our hallelujah hand — 

Praise God, I'm saved! 

Praise God, I'm saved! 
"We'll conquer if we die," 

sang the cadet, intent upon the dinner and her 
soul' s eternal welfare at the same time. I felt some 



SALTATION ARMY. 



83 



anxiety concerning the dinner. I gazed ont at the 
sodden trees and dripping skies, and listened to the 
droning voice of the cadet. Clara had coiled her- 
self np on the lounge, and was fast asleep. Jessie had 
got her stockings darned, and read a War Cry, 
grimly. 

"What news?" I asked, sarcastically. 

"More souls saved in all parts of the world," she 
replied, in the tone of one who imparts information. 

Bertha looked np, wonderingly, not quite under- 
standing the tone, and then resumed her reading. 

A diversion was created at dinner time by the ar- 
rival of "Captain Dick," who slouched upstairs, 
without ceremony. Who Captain Dick is, where 
he hailed from, what his last name is, or what he 
wanted, must remain unanswered, as this was all the 
information concerning him that was forthcoming. 
When his heavy step was heard on the stairs Clara 
paused in the knife-swallowing act to say: 

" Bertha, that's Captain Dick. You've got to en- 
tertain him; I won't." 

Bertha looked reproachful, and called out: " Come 
and have some dinner. 1 ' But Captain Dick declined. 

" It' s because you're here. He' s awfully bashful, ' ' 
explained Bertha. She left her own dinner un- 
finished, and went into the parlor to talk with him. 
Afterward Jessie and I went in. He was a big, 
lumbering cub of a boy, with a heavy head and 
body and a shock of unruly hair. 

"God bless you!" he stammered, and blushed 
furiously. He sat there and cast sheep's eyes at 
Bertha, who seemed unconscious of the fact, and 
then he went away. I am perfectly assured that he 



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FACTS ABOUT THE 



was a good young man. He had need to be, because 
he was nothing else. 

" He's dead in love with Bertha," giggled Clara, 
in a whisper. 

" Will she marry him 3" 

" Well, I should think not," scornfully. 

"He's good, isn't he?" persistently ignoring the 
possibility of any other requisite in a husband for 
Bertha. 

"Oh, yes, he's good I Do you think she'd look at 
him V ' So Clara had an ideal in which mere good- 
ness had no part. They were getting very complex. 

In the afternoon Clara went with Jessie and me to 
purchase material for a uniform. She took us by 
the arm and walked up Went worth avenue to a dry- 
goods store. A few young women were on the street 
in all the finery of promenade costume, and their 
glances of amused curiosity made me fairly gasp. 
The clerk "sized us up," and sold us the materials 
with as little an air of consciousness as possible. I 
bought five yards of a dark blue cloth, and thought 
what a shame it was to fashion such beautiful ma- 
terial into such an ugly form. 

On the way back I purchased a basket of fruit, 
and wanted to buy other things, but did not receive 
much encouragement from Clara. It was extremely 
difficult to give them anything. After that Jessie 
and I contented ourselves with anonymous contribu- 
tions in the collections, except on the rare occasions 
when we walked out alone, and could order things 
sent up from the groceries or meat shop. How 
literally everything had was the Lord's, and ours 
as much as theirs. 



SALVATION AEMY. 



85 



A little cylinder-shaped stove arrived later in the 
day, and two soldiers came over to put it in place. 
Charlie Lanyon was one of them, the son of the man 
of whom they rented the hall. He was an un- 
washed specimen of a boy, who had only his good 
intentions to recommend him. The statement that 
he had been cleansed in the blood of the Lamb 
would have to be taken in a strictly metaphorical 
sense. Both he a.nd his companion sweated profusely 
over that little stove and the joints and elbows of a 
six-inch pipe. They looked sheepishly out from 
bushy eyebrows at Clara's lusty charms, and with 
respect tinged with awe at Bertha' s pure, pale face. 

' 'Oh Charlie, you are so awkward you make me 
laugh!" screamed Clara, giving that attractive 
young man a slap on the shoulder. It was thus 
Clara's exuberance occasionally slopped over. We 
left them perspiring over their task, and went over 
to the hall, where they followed us later. 

The evening meeting was much the same as 
that of the night before, except that we did not 
march. There were the glare of lights, the sea of 
faces, the piercing points from a thousand curious 
eyes, the singing, praying and exhorting, the mo- 
notonous droning of a wornout theme, the incon- 
sequent noise and bluster for two hours. Except 
that it made my head ache, I was callous. To relieve 
the monotony, I beat a tambourine when the noise 
grew loudest. And the hands that were extended ! 
The brothers gave me fraternal squeezes, the sisters 
bestowed damp kisses all over the exposed parts of 
my person, and there was a free exchange of bless- 
ings for fifteen minutes. 



86 



PACTS ABOUT THE 



Then we got out into the cool night air. 

' ' God is good and cool and revivifying and brac- 
ing in spite of that hot, false air and unnatural ex- 
citement. Let ns worship the pallid stars awhile," 
I said to Jessie. So we rambled on, block after block, 
and got home to find the crumbs of a late feast, and 
the three girls awaiting prayers. 

"You came very near missing the worship of 
God," said the cadet. 

"They can not miss that anywhere!" said the 
Captain. Berth i always understood. She took my 
hand in hers as we knelt and prayed. 

' ' Oh, Father, bless us we pray Thee. Bless dear 
Birdie, especially. Quiet her restlessness. Teach 
her to lean on Thee and be at rest. Show her, if it 
seems best, that Thou art not only here, but every- 
where. Thou mayst have other work for her ; lead 
her to read Thy will aright. Bless all of us and 
teach us to worship Thse as thou seest best. Give us 
sweet rest and strength for another Sabbath day 
spent in Thy service. And now, blessed Jesus, Ave 
commit ourselves to thy keeping. Amen." 

And I said, as I slept, ' ' Blessed are the pure in 
heart, for they shall see God." But for those who 
hunger and thirst after righteousness ? 

We were all in the keeping of that God in whose 
service Bertha lived daily, and in whose sight others 
hungered and thirsted and were never filled. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Long ago I read a sketch having for its dramatis 
personce a family of modern churchgoers who im- 



SALVATION ARMY. 



87 



agined themselves Puritanical. They bewailed the 
ungodly days on which they had lighted, and 
longed for the Sabbath of Mayflower days to be pro- 
jected right into the heart of Gotham. 

The great Panjandrum, whoever he may be, who 
has such felicitious ways of pointing out the little 
mistakes of this kind which people make, by means 
of allegory or dream, put them all in a dense slum- 
ber and transported them bodily into Puritan times 
on a Sabbath day. What flimsy stuff they found 
their own piety to be. I don't know but that the 
whole/family found themselves in the stocks before 
the end of the first prayer. 

"Stuff and nonsense!" cried the heir-apparent. 
Pious pilgrims, indeed ! They are fanatical fools, 
'cranks. 1 If we had them on Fifth avenue they 
would all be in the lunatic asylum before night." 
But then, it must be remembered that he was still 
smarting from the indignities which had been 
heaped on his very correct walking-stick. 

But if there are others rash enough to wish the 
old Puritan Sabbath back again, when one awoke 
to prayer and cold beans, sober dress and solemn 
behavior ; when the minister was wound up to last to 
fifty -firstly, and the tithing-man neither slumbered 
nor slept when the rod was provided for young sin- 
ners and the stocks for the old — 

To such as these I will say : Sigh no more. There 
is an approach to all this. All who wish may expe- 
rience such a Sunday as this with the Salvationists. 

This one morning is always our own. We rise at 
nine, perhaps, take a refreshing bath, don our soft- 
est, easiest garments, eat a leisurely breakfast, read 



88 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



the Sunday papers — the best edition of the week — 
and then if it suits us, if we are not too tired, or 
the minister too tiresome, if the church is near, the 
day bright, if we have a new garment to wear, 
and feel pretty well ourselves we go to church, and 
pat ourselves on the back for going. Afterward we 
come back to a five-o' clock dinner, take a drive, and 
then toast our toes on the fender all a long, delight- 
ful evening. That is the Sunday of the modern 
ungodly Grothamite. 

" Look on this picture, then on this." 

At 6.30 we were called— a heathenish hour. The 
stove was up now, but there was no time to ' ' fire up, " 
so we dressed in the cold, and with teeth chattering 
like a country doctor' s articulated skeleton. Vis- 
ions of breakfast were uppermost with me, but nay! 
We put on our hats and jackets and started out in 
the frosty morning air for the hall for " knee-drill." 
Even the birds knew better than to get up at that 
hour on Sunday, and little brown sparrows sat in 
rows along the leafless limbs of the trees with their 
heads tucked under their wings. A blue mist envel- 
oped the landscape, and a white rime lay on the 
pavements undisturbed by pedestrians. A milk 
wagon rattled by a dog got up from a front 
step, but lay down again too sleepy to bark. The 
sun, a yellow nimbus about a dull red disc, was try- 
ing to penetrate the fog. It was all very beautiful 
and still and crisp and sweet and simple— and 
simple. 

"Oh, Jesus!" apostrophized Millie. Millie never 
let us forget her aspirations for one moment. 

" She puts the accent on the wrong syllable," said 



SALVATION ARMY. 



89 



Jessie to me in a savage whisper. " I could say it 
for her with better effect." 

A dozen soldiers were there ; Charlie Lanyon, the 
bow-legged one, a sick one whom our prayers had 
helped arise from a bed of pain, an old man and his 
wife, a Guernsey, the tenor-drummer, and two or 
three others. 

"God bless you," they all said, and then began 
the business of the hour — the "knee-drill." 

"Knee-drill !" I should remark it was ! Inside 
a half -hour holes were drilled clear through my 
knees,,* They were perforated, and still we knelt. 
Clara and the cadet prostrated themselves in the 
dust, and I wondered if they called their performance 
a stomach drill. We prayed and sang, and groaned 
and howled. Once in an age we got up to testify to 
the fact that we never tired of serving the Lord; 
then we got down again. 

If I could have served Him in some other attitude, 
or after breakfast, my testimony would have been 
both loud and deep. The only thing which kept me 
from rebelling openly was Bertha's clear, pale face 
and self-forgetfulness. 

After awhile I took Clara's attitude and lay down 
on my face, kicking my heels in the incidental and 
infantile fashion of Lotta. My back ached, my 
head throbbed, and there was an awful ' ' goneness' ' 
inside — a yawning chasm that prayer would not 
satisfy. 

" This is heathenish !" I whispered to Jessie. I 
rolled over on one side, then on the other, then lifted 
myself to a half- standing posture. I once sat in a 
dentist 1 s chair for three hours with a rubber blanket 



90 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



in my mouth, and a buzz-saw in my head, and until 
this sweet Puritanical Sabbath morning I think I 
had no conception of what nerves meant. 

"Oh, Lord, how long?" I groaned. 

Instantly there was rejoicing among the devout 
over my conviction of sin, when, if they had only 
known it, I was convicted of their stupidity and in 
humanity. But ' ' whom the Lord loveth He chasten- 
eth." At least, I was too chastened to do more than 
laugh hysterically over their mistake. To be tired 
out and hungry, body, mind, and soul, will make one 
humble if anything will. To take the starch out of 
one I have never seen the knee-drill equaled. 

When the last "Amen !" had been said we stag 
gered up off our knees, Jessie and I, and into the 
sunlight. 

"Jessie, I believe I'm getting bow-legged. They 
wobble around so frightfully !" I said, at last, in gen- 
uine consternation. This made us both laugh, which 
did us good. The cadet looked back disapprovingly, 
and I flung her an airy little kick. It was 8. 30 when 
we walked back. "One hour and a half of praying 
before breakfast. Ye gods !" said Jessie. 

"Don't. Let' s imagine a breakfast. Cantaleup, 
oatmeal with cream, hot rolls, a chop breaded, an 
omelet with currant jelly, baked potatoes, and coffee, 
the Sunday papers hanging over the radiator to dry, 
a lace and ribbon neglige, and ' ' 

' ' Oh, hush. Let' s walk slowly and buy a paper, 
anyhow." 

There was no one on the streets but milkmen and 
newsboys. We beckoned to one of these, and em- 
ployed all our arts and cabalistic signs to get him to 



SALVATION ARMY. 



91 



come to us. He looked at us and then at our com- 
panions and probably thought he had make a mis- 
take for he moved off down the street. Our last 
hope was gone, and tears of vexation came into my 
eyes. I felt it in my bones that something had 
blown up somewhere in the world. 

"If the millennium were to come we shouldn't 
know until the week after next, when it had grown 
stale and everybody else had ascended unto the skies 
in snow-white robes." 

This elicited no response. We walked on discour- 
aged aM disheartened through the crisp, still Sab- 
bath air, and into the small chilly rooms. We ate a 
breakfast of funeral-baked meats left over from Sat- 
urday, in a subdued frame of mind, j)oked the cylin- 
der stove into a nondescript warmth, got the house 
piled up systematically, read a chapter from the 
Bib]e, had family prayers, made another toilet, and 
— went back to the hall at half -past ten for morning 
services. 

Many a tragedy is contained in a paragraph. Jessie 
staid home from that meeting and I went. 

There were perhaps a hundred present, and we all 
staid about the stove to keep it warm. If you are 
interested to know what Ave did, read the last service 
— ditto. We prayed and sang and testified and ex- 
horted for two hours. 

After about an hour and a half Clara leaned over 
and whispered: "How's your back?" 

"It isn't my back. It's got to my temper. Til 
fly into little bits of peices pretty soon." 

The cadet overheard me and smiled seraphically. 
Then she had an inspiration ! I notice that inspira- 



92 



PACTS ABOUT THE 



tions come to them in an entirely impromptu man- 
ner. The cadet sang: 

" My temper's washed away by the blood of Lamb." etc. 

This was so startlingly successful that she essayed 
yet another verse: 

"My bangs are washed away." 

That was too much. I laughed, and then my 
esthetic soul groaned. It shocked my orthodoxy, 
too, that the Almighty should be thought to concern 
himself with the details of dress and fashion. Then 
it was so ridiculous that I laughed again. As Jes- 
sie was at home, I was fain to take it all seriously. 

The attendants on these Sunday morning meet- 
ings were all devout. There was not a gleam of 
humor among them. I ran my eyes over them and 
saw them all, young and old, listening intently. One 
old man kept his funny pink head bobbing up and 
down in approval. What a good place to paint a 
placque of pansies his head would have been. The 
pearly pink of his skin would have been the very 
background for the royal purple and gold ! 

His wife, a big old woman swathed in numerous 
shawls, got up at last when he wasn' t looking at her. 
He tried to pull her down again, but she didn't pull 
to any considerable extent. 

"No; I ain't a-going to sit down. I'm going to 
speak for Jesus. J ain't ashamed of Jesus. Mebbe 
you think I am, but I ain't. I love Jesus. These 
lasses here — these hallelujah lasses — spend all their 
time prayin', singin', and tellin' folks about the 
Lord, and I don't spend any time that way. It keeps 
me busy most of the time looking about the house 



SALVATION ARMY. 



93 



and my old man" (here a jerk from the person un- 
der discussion). "ISTo; I won't set down till I tell 
how I love the Lord and ain't ashamed of him if I 
do keep still." 

" Hallelujah !" from a soldier. 

" Everybody what ain't ashamed of Jesus hold up 
the right hand," she continued. A good many held 
up the left hand, but this was not from a wish to be 
unaccommodating, but because of the fact that 
education is not compulsory. 

" Wefr, I ain't ashamed of Jesus and you needn't 
think so. My old man's a-pullin' me down and I 
guess I'd better set down." 

"Amen." " Praise God." " Hallelujah !" 

u Now everybody sing" : 

"Praise God I'm saved! 

Praise God I'm saved ! 
Oh, come and join our hallelujah band. 

Praise God I'm saved ! 

Praise God I'm saved ! 
We'll conquer if we die." 

Then Bertha read the last chapter of the Book of 
Revelation, in which preachers of all creeds have 
revelated with impunity. She took it literally with- 
out question or explanation. Jesus was to her the 
Alpha and Omega; the beginning and the end of all 
things. Creeds must fall before the edict of God 
against adding to or taking away from His word. 
She testified of these things, and said: " Even so, 
come quickly, Lord Jesus." I was weary, but 
Bertha was as a spring of pure water in a desert, and 
cooled my hot blood. 

When we got home it was one o' clock. There was a 



94 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



hasty dinner, eaten in silence. Bertha was wrapped 
in some celestial mood; Clara was snbdned, and 
the cadet was profoundly obedient to the law which 
requires the Sabbath day to be kept more holy. I 
should like to see the cadet on a desert island with- 
out a calendar, and see if she would resort keep- 
ing tally with notches on a stick, or if some instinct 
would keep her straight. 

The cadet and I got the dinner, my companion 
keeping up a sing-song, droning accompaniment to 
her square-built, phlegmatic movements, something 
about the grace of God and how sweet it was. If 
Millie had used her own voice, her powers of per- 
suasion would not have been sufficient to convince 
me of the saccharine qualities of sugar. The cadet 
was singularly gifted with the power to make noise 
but not music. Her teeth, from their possible utility 
in the noise-making process, reminded me of time- 
yellowed vox humani and tremulo stops on a cabi- 
net organ. When Millie got to singing about the 
grace of God she was on a threadbare theme. If she 
would only vary it. 

As an offset to her saw-filing I began deliberately 
to sing a sloppy Spanish love song, Juanita, when 
what did Clara do but supply some Salvation words 
to it. I found out, slowly, and by a painful pro- 
cess, that every familiar tune has been rescued and 
utilized by them on the same principle that John 
Wesley observed: "The devil shan't have all the 
good tunes while I'm alive." 

" Mollie Darling"' and "Papa's Baby Boy" 
shared the same fate, and then I tried "Over the Gar- 
den Wall." Jessie and I rolled into one heap on 



SALVATION ARMY. 



95 



the red lounge when our " Gobble Duett'' was cap- 
tured, even to the roll of the eyes, and dragged at 
the chariot wheels of the Almighty; not even an 
ark was left from their deluge. 

We had one unfailing resort when things got so 
they could be borne no longer— the woodshed. There 
we exchanged our confidences. I sat on a pile of 
shavings and Jessie on a saw-buck, at the immi- 
nent risk of our necks. There she called me ' ' Nora." 
Numerous knot-holes in this palatial shed let in the 
light of day. Once I caught a small boy with bis 
eye glued to one of those holes, and I threatened to 
send him to the mills of the gods, where the grind- 
ing is exceedingly fine. He was not familiar with 
the figure, so it served. 

We went to our boudoir that afternoon, and sat 
in our accustomed places, with festoons of cobwebs 
above us, and woodmites and grubs beneath. 

"Oh, Jessie!" I groaned. 

"Oh, Nora!" Jessie was prostrated abjectly. 
She had a wild-eyed, inhuman look that frightened 
me. 

" Let's run off !" she whispered. 

"And leave the devil in possession? Never! 
There comes the cadet. What does that damaged 
damsel want anyhow V ' 

It was time to go to the hall. 

Two tragedies in one day ! 

"Jessie, have I committed murder or anything, 
and is this my punishment % I feel like Lady Mac- 
beth. All the perfumes of Araby will not cleanse 
my mind of a smell of sulphur." 

And we went back to the hall ! The crowd had 



96 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



turned out, and the house was full. There seemed 
to be a good deal of power on top. Clara was in 
excellent voice, and no one resisted her magnetism. 
Captain Bertha's fatigue fell from her like a mask, 
and the audience followed her every movement. She 
lifted her pale hands and inspired face and sang: 

" At the cross, at the cross, 

Where I first saw the light, 
And the burden of my heart rolled away — 

It was there by faith 

I received my sight, 
And now I am happy all the day." 

Her own face was full of "the light that was never 
on sea or land." She uplifted, she inspired, she 
magnetized, slie purified, she purged the very air 
about her. The Sistine Madonna is like her — none 
other; yet in repose and uninspired by any great 
idea she would have been commonplace. 

She said little, and that was of the simplest. 
There was no coaxing; it was entreaty — the entreaty 
of one soul which has found a blessing that others 
should share it. 

Then she prayed. She used some stock phrases, 
but not a word of it was ' 6 cant. ' ' She repeated end - 
lessly, but it never got old with her or her hearers. 
She cried, the blood left her lips. Fire might have 
been about her; she would have been like Jeanne 
d'Arc with the voices of angels in her ears to the 
last. Indeed, she sang all alone: 

" I hear Thy welcome voice 
That calls me now to Thee." 

She paused, listening. There were inaudible strains 
in the very air attuned to finer ears. With a glad 



SALVATION ARMY. 



97 



smile she lifted lier arms, and a flood of music burst 
the confines of her soul. All the people joined, and 
what hosts of unseen angels ! 

" I am coming, Lord, 
Coming now to Thee. 
Wash me, cleanse me in the blood 
That flowed on Calvary." 

Again: 

l " I am coming, Lord," 

in one grand melody. The audience went on, but 
Bertha paused. The light left her face, and with a 
sobbing moan, she sank to her knees. It seemed as 
if she saw another vision. 

' ' Oh, our Heavenly Father, Thou dost love us ! 
Keep these dear people, Thy children, in the arms of 
Thy love. Straight is the gate and narrow is the 
way that leads to Thee. I see the throng going 
down the broad way filled with pleasantness, and 
Thou art not at the end. Save them dear Father. 
Oh, my Father, Thou art great and good ! Help 
me to speak Thy words, to give Thy message. It is 
sufficient. Help." She paused, sobbing. The rest 
of us on our knees, or heads, or stomachs didn't 
have sense enough to keep still. 

" Amen to Jesus !" groaned some idiot soldier. 

Someone in the audience laughed, but they all 
watched Bertha. " Oh, our Father! 1 ' she mur- 
mured sobbingly. 

Two women came up the platform — two German 
women — aud sobbed while she prayed over them. I 
got near one of the kneeling women and took her 
hand. 

7 



98 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



' ' De Captain do mak me feel so sorry for my 
sin !" she said. 

That was good. That was very good. It is more 
than most of us can do, to make people feel sorry 
for their sin. I sat down on the edge of the plat- 
form and a good church brother came up to me. 
He had not seen me before, and thought me a 
mourner. 

"Are you saved ?" he asked, anxiously. 

" You bet I am. I'm sanctified," was my uncom- 
promising reply. 

" Praise the Lord. G-od bless you," he said, and 
passed on. He saw nothing incongruous in my slang. 

The audience }3assed out quietly or waited to 
shake hands with Bertha. Many of them were not 
even church members, I think, and possibly laughed 
at the " performance " when they got away, but 
they felt awed by Bertha, and were better for hav- 
ing seen one person capable of such self-abnegation, 
consecration, and holiness, such as she exemplified in 
her daily walk and conversation. Bertha took the 
addresses of the two women after the meeting, and 
urged them to come again that night. 

In the evening we marched again on the streets, 
but I had got hardened against public comment, 
and went along blithely. All Englewood was out 
in its Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes; the dude with 
his cigarette; the young man with his best girl, 
matron and maid, beau and belle, and we were a 
part of the idyl of idleness, a color in the kaleido- 
scope, a view in the panorama. They stopped in 
their promenading to gaze on us a moment. 

The small boy was especially numerous, and yelled 



SALVATION AEMY. 



99 



his aboriginal comments on us, and we drowned 
them in noise. We marched six blocks. There 
were more of us than on Friday night, and we were 
enabled to make more noise, and executed several 
graceful military maneuvres. We walked in two 
files, embracing the street-car tracks, and the mutin- 
ous and mutable mule kicked up wreaths of shining 
dust between us. The small boy " tailed " the pro- 
cession and furnished the responses. I knew most 
of the soldiers by this time. The fair one was Ida, 
and the one who wore glasses, Amy. Ida 6 ' worked 
out ' ' and was neat and trim, and Amy acted as 
cashier in her father' s butcher shop, and was an ex- 
pert on lamb or ram, and the price each commanded. 
The wall-eyed one was George; the jumping- jack's 
name was John. Nobody gave introductions to any- 
one, and only officers at other stations were desig- 
nated by their last names. 

That evening Jessie and I sat on the front row 
among the uniforms of the devout. The cadet's 
poke bonnet poked its nose into my pious medita- 
tions on a hooked nose just beyond. A tambourine 
was delivered over to my tender mercies, and Jessie 
utilized the sheepskin to take shorthand notes of a 
very original testimony. 

The cadet had a rule and square Masonic way of 
gesticulating that excited the admiration of a large 
circle of spectators. She led the meeting part of 
the time. One arm was laid across her back to be 
supported by a bustle that was non est. Millie was 
not pretty without a bustle, if you got a back view 
of her. She was too broad and flat. She ought to 
have concealed the fact as much as possible that the 



100 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



Lord had seen fit to afflict her with such a shape. 
But let her get an elbow movement on, and the 
dullest would have been convinced that the line of 
beauty is a curve. Millie could create the character 
of a female Humpty Dumpty in a pantomime. But 
all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't 
have put her audiences together again after she 
once essayed to sing. 

Her voice broke a young man in the congregation 
up to such an extent that he very unwisely sought 
consolation in trying to flirt with me. He had his 
hair parted in the middle. I have a constitutional 
objection to young men whose heads are built on the 
hip-roof plan. I looked properly shocked at this 
one, but it had no more effect on his vacuous mind 
than it would on a corner lamp-post. So I clasped 
my hands and rolled my eyes. That finished him ; 
he thought I was praying for him, and I am indebted 
to the hallelujah lasses for a pointer. 

I bent all my energies that evening trying to learn 
how to kneel for a half -hour without having my 
knees grow numb or my feet go to sleep ; but I 
didn't learn. When the noise was loudest I kicked 
ad lib. and that helped matters a little. 

My respect for St. Simon Stylites and kindred 
cranks grows apace. 

The audience that evening was composed largely 
of young people; cynical young men, and demure 
young girls, the coldest-blooded analysts in crea- 
tion. Every youthful American is a Henry James, with 
a keen power of weighing and comparing, not always 
with discrimination, but one thing may be depended 
upon, his judgment is rarely flattering. To sit under 



SALVATION ARMY. 



101 



this scrutiny for an hour or two is about as pleasant 
as to submit one's self to the surgeon's knife, or 
take the star part at the morgue. 

Our perceptions grow duller and more kindly as 
we grow older. 

It was all over! There was a blare of song, a crash 
of tambourines, a stampede from the pearly gates, 
a volley of hallelujah's, and the crowd poured out. 

"Oh, you hurt my hand!" I said to a zealous 
soldier. 

"You shouldn't wear gloves," he answered 
laughing. But I would. I might give up my rings, 
my watch and bangs, my bustle and bangles, but 
my gloves — never. 

I shook hands with at least fifty, and was blessed 
each separate time. When we got home we ate a 
lunch off the last of the funeral meats. I took a 
pepsin powder as a gentle reminder that liberties 
were being taken with my organs of digestion, and 
got to bed at eleven o' clock in a chastened frame of 
body and mind. 

There is a Puritanical Salvation Sabbath for you, 
oh, ye devout. The only carnal thing we did was to 
count the collection, which for the four services 
amounted to $14. For those who have a fondness 
of statistics I will also state that eight hours out of 
sixteen had been spent in public worship, not count- 
ing between whiles, and I had been in an attitude of 
supplication just twenty-two times during the day. 
This groveling may be pleasing to the Almighty, but 
I imagine that if He had intended us to get on all 
fours as a matter of habit, He would have made 
quadrupeds of us in the beginning. 



102 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



And after all this, when we had gotten our night- 
dresses on, we had to kneel by our little beds and go 
over another incantation in silence. I don't know 
what Jessie made of hers but I said mine with vigor 
and variations and jumped into bed. 

Shades of the Pilgrim Fathers retire to your sleep 
long disturbed by apostrophes of later admiring gen- 
erations ! You have been outdone in zeal and can 
no longer pose as the champion stormers at the gates 
of paradise. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

There is just one deviation of the devout from 
the strict line of Scriptural injunction that I most 
heartily indorse, and that is their practice of getting 
up at a fashionably late hour. After wrestling with 
the powers of darkness for sixteen hours on Sunday, 
a little more sleep, a little more slumber, a little 
more folding of the hands in sleep came in where it 
would be appreciated Monday morning. 

We had breakfast at ten, and after that first morn- 
ing Jessie, who has a great head for details and a 
habit of early rising, put these two requisites into a 
morning stroll that invariably ended in landing a 
basket of eggs or juicy chop or steak on the break- 
fast table. The Captain remonstrated. 

" What do you propose to do about it ? Are you 
going to throw the things away ? I don' t see how 
you are to prevent my bringing them in when you 
are all snoring the cornices off the house. " 



SALVATION ARMY. 



103 



" You will get us accustomed to luxuries that are 
bad for us." 

4 'Nothing is bad for anyone that the Lord made 
to be used. You eat that and thank the Lord you 
have it," said Jessie, and they desisted. Jessie's 
piety was of the practical order and singularly con- 
vincing, f 

At prayers that morning we were urged to send up 
a petition to the Throne of Grace. After the Captain 
had prayed, the cadet had groaned, and Clara had 
howled, Jessie was appealed to, I was wondering 
what she would say, when all at once she began, after 
a little preliminary, to repeat one from the Episcopal 
Book of Common Prayer, being a petition for the de- 
parting soul. It was the sheerest piece of impudence 
I ever witnessed. 

" Praise God!" ejaculated the dear little unsus- 
picious Captain. 

"May the Lord bless her." 

u Oh, Jesus !" was Clara's unfailing response. 

' ' Now Birdie, dear little Birdie, ask Jesus to help 
you pray. Right here among us it will be easy." 
A lump came up in my throat. All my life what 
prayers I have prayed have been in silence. Lip 
service is so hateful — impossible. I detested, inex- 
pressibly, to go through this form — a real prayer I 
could not send up. It was all horribly hypocritical ; 
but their idiotic insisting, the necessity of keeping up 
my disguise and their patronage of me, contributed 
to a flash of impudence during which I found myself 
repeating the introduction to " InMemoriam," that 
beautiful prayer of which I once heard a minister 
say that it contained the essentials of all creeds. 



104 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



I tacked on an Amen ; the responses broke the 
rythm, and they never knew that I had got off one of 
my old elocution lessons. 

" God bless you !" said the Captain, giving us one 
of her rare kisses as we got up. " You feel better 
now, don't you ?" 

" Oh yes, I feel better," but I didn't dare look at 
Jessie. After awhile that young lady remarked in- 
cidentally: 

" I'm so glad you like ' In Memoriam.' " Bertha 
looked at us wonderingly, as she did sometimes when 
we made mysterious remarks apropos of nothing. If 
she had had a grain of suspicion in her she would 
have caught us many times. She was intelligent 
enough to make up for any lack of culture. 

After prayers we had got the width of the room 
apart, twelve feet, to attend each to her own separate 
business. I had my uniform to cut out, but as the 
Captain was busy making out her weekly report on a 
blank furnished for that purpose I watched her. I 
leaned over her shoulder to see what was required in 
this report, and was astonished at its fullness and the 
necessity for accounting for every cent and every 
moment of time. A note at the bottom stated : 

' ' This official form is to be carefully filled in by 
you, as in the sight of God, and in the presence of 
your lieutenant or cadet, if you have one." 

The income from cash in hand at the end of the last 
week; from the week's collections; received for sol- 
dier's cartridges, books, and outfits; amount obtained 
from selling War Crys; collections from outposts; 
donations from all sources, had to be du]y set 
forth. 



SALVATION AEMY. 



105 



Their receipts for the week amounted to about $32; 
t did not see the total. 

The expenses were then carefully entered on the 
blank. The Captain got her full salary, $6, and the 
cadet's expenses were $3. Out of this $9, $2 went for 
house rent, a part of their own living expenses. The 
hall rent for the week was $6.87; the gas bill for the 
month, $8.25, was due; and $5. 50 was to be forwarded 
for War Crys, which had been sold. There was 
some money for badges, and the Major got his tithe. 
When the account was balanced I looked for the 
cash in hand, but Bertha covered the figures. 

' ' Tell me if you have enough money for expenses?" 
I begged. 

"Oh, yes, there's enough — enough to pay every- 
thing, and I got my salary" (which had already 
been spent for the house, doubtless). 

" But is there anything over % How much f 

■ ' There is enough . ' ' 

iC I have my own ideas on how much is enough. 
Let me see." 

" Now Birdie, go away, dear child; you bother me. 
Jessie never bothers me." 

But I would see. There was just twenty-five cents 
left. 

' ' Do you call that enough V ' 

" Why, yes, my dear," blithely. " Sometimes we 
can't even pay expenses. This is enough to live on 
to-day, and then to-night there will be another col- 
lection." 

" Let me contribute something now." 
u No, no, no ! What a child you are. We have 
enough to eat. Can' t you trust in the Lord." 



106 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



No, I couldn't, not to that extent. 4 1 Hateful 
thing," I said, with striking originality and elegance, 
and desisted. 

' ' But where does Clara come in ?' ' I asked. 

6 ' Clara is just here on a visit. She is not an officer 
nor cadet. She is visiting me like any other sister. 
Clara will go home in a week or two." 

"But she wears the uniform." 

"Yes. She is a soldier in Minneapolis. All our 
family are soldiers. My father plays the French 
horn at Minneapolis, Corps No. 1, but I am the only 
one who has gone away from home to become an 
officer." 

"You bet I don't want to be an officer," said 
Miss Clara. " I ain't good enough, and then you 
are in it for life, once you get there." 

" You think you wouldn't like that ?" 

" I might not, and I'd never backslide. Why, I 
think if an Army officer goes back on her work she 
is damned eternally." 

' ' That' s a cheerful view of it. ' ' 

"It's true !" she said, with the deepest conviction. 
"I'll be true to the Army and God as a soldier, but 
I ain't good like Bertha. Sometimes I think about 
the boys instead of Jesus." 

"Ob, Clara!" 

" I do, Bertha. What's the use in lying about it. 
I'm going to get married some day, and maybe take 
off the uniform, but I can be a Christian just the 
same, and I wouldn't marry anybody but a Christian 
though he may not be a Salvationist. You know 
there' s brother Will. He' s just as good as anybody, 
but he thinks we're all fools, father and all of us, for 



SALTATION AEXY. 



10? 



joining the Salvationists. His wife is a good Christ- 
ian, too, if she does dress stylish. This is a pretty 
big world. Bertha." 

"Yes, it's a big world, and the Almighty rules 
over all of it. Don't grow foolish. Clara." 

I looked of er the rest of the form as Bertha filled 
it in. She entered in detail the number of meetings 
held during the week: the number of soldiers belong- 
ing to the corps; the number of people present at each 
meeting: the number who testified, and whether 
they were Army people, church members, or sin- 
ners: the number of hours spent in visiting, and the 
class visited: "prisoners" taken: backsliders; War 
Crys ordered and sold: the number of hours spent 
outdoors selling them, and a host of other questions 
covering a printed blank the size of a sheet of legal 
cap. The report was then duplicated, one sent to 
the Chief -of- Staff, national headquarters, Xo. 73 
Beekman street. ISTew York City, and one to the 
divisional officer, Major Evans 

" Every officer in the world is making np a report 
just like this to-day. Each one forwards his to the 
national headquarters of the country in which he is 
working, and reports are made up from these and 
forwarded to General Booth, in London. He knows 
each week the exact progress of the Army in all 
parts of the world," explained Bertha. "Oh, it is 
a beautiful system: just like an Army where the 
commanding officer knows just what every private 
is doing/* 

"What salary does the General get?" 
Xone whatever. There is an annuity settled on 
the office by a rich man in London. At the Gen- 



108 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



eral's death this passes on to his successor. He has 
not a cent of his own, and would have nothing but 
this, about $1,200 a year, I think, so he would be free 
to devote all his time to the Army work and handle 
none of the funds. The clerks at headquarters are 
Army men and women who get a small salary, just 
enough to live on in the barracks. In London and 
New York there are large bands of Army people 
devoted to rescue work, and who stay in the ' Train- 
ing Home,' where officers are trained in every part 
of Army work. The Major will tell you all about 
it." 

Bertha was absorbed in her reports; the cadet 
moved about on household deeds intent and in a 
state of conscious grace; Clara sang choruses in a 
rich alto voice that was too strong for that tiny 
house, while I got out the material for my new uni- 
form, and looked about for a place large enough to 
lay it straight. 

"Put it on the floor, dear"; then, as she saw I 
looked vexed over such an arrangement, "It's a 
little inconvenient, but what does it matter ? Five 
minutes afterward you will have forgotten all about 
it." 

She did shame my vexations over trifles. It is all 
so simple to me now, why we are so often unhappy 
without a cause. I spread the blue cloth on the 
floor in a space long enough to admit of cutting out 
the skirt, and sawed at it with a dull pair of shears 
and my tongue, while Jessie basted the cloth and 
lining together. It was only a dark blue cloth ex- 
actly the shade of six other dresses in the house, and 
was to be built on the same plan, yet I took pride 



SALVATION ARMY. 



109 



in the "''hang'" of it. and an anxious consultation 
was held over it. 

4 1 You want it real full so it will hang pretty, 
said Clara. 

' ; Will it hang pretty * If I thought it would — ' ? 

" Why of course ! Dont you think them nice ? 
They are so neat. ' ' 

u ,H~o; honestly. I think they are hideous." 

"So did I at first, but I dont now. If people 
have to dress common, it's bad taste to follow every 
fashion with cheap materials. Now this dress takes 
so little material you can afford to get fine cloth for 
it." 

I heartily agreed with Clara on that point, but 
dresses could be made plainly without their being 
all of the same color, and exactly alike. I concluded 
to buy a black jersey instead of having a waist 
made, as before a dressmaker could evolve a basque 
I would be a backslider. 

After taking my skirt to a dressmaker I devoted 
the afternoon to improving my mind with religious 
reading. A copy of All The World, the Salvation 
Army monthly organ, seemed the most promising in 
the way of furnishing entertainment of anything 
within reach. 

It had a hideous frontispiece of Mrs. Tucker, the 
youngest, best beloved, and most recently married 
of General Booth' s numerous daughters. She and 
her husband have lassoed Satan in India and adja- 
cent provinces, and are rescuing little babies from the 
Ganges and trying to decrease the number of four- 
teen-year-old widows in that depraved region. 
AVhat the Brigadier and Mrs. Tucker have against 



110 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



the patent-inside country paper, to thus deprive it 
of racy and indisputable items of news, was not 
stated. Be that as it may, Mrs Tucker was here ar- 
rayed in the national costume of India, which she 
wore as a bridal robe. She also wore eye-glasses 
and a belligerent aspect. There was a dedicatory 
poem from the poet laureate of the Army, and a 
biographical sketch in which her holiness, while yet 
in pinafores, was represented as being something 
marvelous. The magazine was crammed from cover 
to cover with inane sentimentality on the favorite 
theme of the Salvationists — the grace of God as it was 
manifested through His armor-bearers. But every 
idea which has in it enough to find followers will pro- 
duce a literature worthy some preservation. I looked 
for a pearl among all these oyster shells, and this is 
what I found hidden so in a mass of rubbish that it 
had to be exhumed. But if I take this gem and 
polish it, let it shine under another name, its beauty 
is just as apparent — the story is too universally 
true to need that one girl's name should be taken 
from the peaceful grave it has found and dragged 
again in the dirt. So she shall be called Barbara 
Baillie. 

The story began with an obituary notice and ended 
in an idyl of London life with a heroine from 
Whitechapel. 

" Died in London, Lieut. Barbara Baillie; 'sic a 
wild wean,' as her mother called her, now tamed by 
the grace of God. She suffered so long in body and 
in spirit, but all her ills are cured and she has found 
rest in Jesus. She was one of thfi typical women of 
Whitechapel saved by the rescue-band. After her 



SALVATION ARMY. 



Ill 



own conversion she labored for a year to save other 
women from the life she had known, but the ravages 
of sin had left her too weak to go on, and a merciful 
God released her from her sufferings. Lieutenant 
Baillie was buried from the Salvation Army barracks 
with military honors." 

Cumbered with words, cant phrases, a pointing 
of the moral in every line when the story itself was 
the moral, this is what followed. I have cleaned all 
the rubbish away and left the gem polished but 
unset. 

A NEW MAGDALEN. 

4 ' Sic a wild wean!" 

The grim Scotch woman shut the door of her cot- 
tage with a bang and went back to her knitting. 
The fire-light gleamed on the needles and made them 
flash with an ugly glitter. Little Jean, a timid child 
sitting at the woman's knee, glanced up at her half 
frightened at the angry click, click. 

" You won't hurt Barbie, mother!" she pleaded. 

"Hurt heii She hurts herself, bairnie. Oh, my 
little Jean, promise me you will never be like Barbie." 

" Is it bad to run the moors?" 

' ' With wild lads and lasses. A good girl stays at 
home with her mother and learns to keep a house. 
But Barbie minds nothing I say." 

' ' But she goes to the kirk on Sundays, mother. ' ' 

"And shames the Lord in his own house. What 
did she do only last Sabbath night but call our good 
minister a stickit parson. I would not believe a 
daughter of mine could be so wicked.' ' 

Mrs. Baillie did not cry. She shut her lips in a 



112 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



hard little line and went on with her knitting. 
Little Jean sat silently at her feet putting together 
a bit of patchwork, frowning when only some green 
and purple blocks remained. 

"How Barbie would laugh," she thought. Yet 
she did not dare ask for some pink to go with the 
green, and a bit of buff for the purple. Her mother 
would think it ridiculous to be vexed over so small 
a thing as two colors which matched as well as two 
other colors. In her own little heart twelve-year- 
old Jean thought the minister a ' ' stickit parson ' ' 
herself. She had never dared breathe this to Barbie 
even where she was sure of sympathy. 

' ' Why, it would break her heart for me to even 
think such a wicked thing," she thought, looking 
timidly up into the grim face and then down again 
at her green and purple pieces. "I must hurry and 
get this patchwork done or she will think me bad 
like Barbie. How fast she knits! If we were both 
bad I wonder if she would knit twice as fast," 

" I don't think Barbie's so very bad," she ven- 
tured at last, but sewing very fast and looking down. 

' ' You know nothing about it. Keep your lips 
closed or Old Clootie '11 creep in and make you say 
wicked things. ' ' Mrs. Baillie knit harder than ever, 
and began to rock as a flying step was heard coming 
over the short turf. A girl of sixteen, a robust girl 
with pink cheeks, burnished red hair flying about a 
fair, freckled face, and with a light, lissome figure, 
sped breathlessly into the room. 

"Where have you been, lass?" asked Mrs. Baillie, 
not looking up at the bright vision lest her hard feel- 
ings should all melt away. 



SALVATION ARMY. 



113 



"Kissing Sandy at the gate,'- with a candor at 
once charming and impudent. 

' £ You kiss all the lads who ask you. I have heard 
your father say a lass's lips should not be a field for 
all cattle to pasture on. He got that out of a book, 
so it is good." 

"Father didn't know everything if he is dead." 
She stopped for the startled look from little Jean, 
and her mothers white face. 

" Don't say that Barbie," cried Jean, taking the 
mother's hand in her own, "You have a tongue 
th at hurts." 

"Well," with a shame-faced but half -reckless 
laugh. "How am I to tell which lad I like the best 
unless I kiss them all. I'm going away anyhow." 

"Away? Where would you go, my bairn? A 
lassie can't go where she pleases just like a 
man.' ' 

' ' What would you have me do here — sew green 
and purple pieces together all my life?" Jean 
blushed and hid the ugly patchwork under her 
aporn. She hated so for Barbie to imagine she 
thought it pretty. Yet there was the sad mother, 
and the little girl's heart was too soft to hurt any- 
one. 

Barbie had sat down by the smoldering peat fire 
with her face between her hands, and Jean looked 
half fearfully from the bright-colored angry face to 
her mother's so hard and white. "It is so easy to 
understand people. Why do they hurt each other 
so?' ' she thought. Dear little Jean understood and 
loved everyone. 

' ' r m going away, ' ' said Barbie again, sulkily. 

8 



114 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



"I'm going to Manchester to work in the mills." 
She looked up half defiantly, and would have soft- 
ened, but her mother knitted away steadily, her face 
bard and grim. Barbie flashed a look at Jean, and 
nodded brightly, as much as to say: " You see, she 
doesn't care, so I'm going." 

And she did go, after many hard and bitter words 
had passed her mother's lips, and many reckless, 
defiant ones her own. The little cottage on the 
moor knew her no more; the. village gossips missed 
her bright, wild ways, and shook their heads over 
her. The young girls spoke of her with secret envy. 
Jean got a letter now and then from Manchester, 
which the mother never asked to see. 

Barbie was in the great city of wheels and spin- 
dles. She missed the moors at first, and longed for 
Jean and Sandy, her Scottish lover. Then the rush 
and roar, the hurry and bustle, of the mills intoxi- 
cated her. She loved the whir of the belts, and the 
sheen of the white cloth as it wound endlessly from 
the machines. There were such crowds of people all 
the time, not like the stupid little Scotch village 
with its miles of lonesome heather. Sometimes a 
purple cloud of it would float before her eyes right 
in the middle of that great room filled with ma- 
chinery, but it was gone in a moment. 

In the evenings there was always fun. The bloom- 
ing, breezy Scotch girl was a great favorite with all 
her companions. She always had a friend with 
whom to stroll the gay ly -lighted streets after the mill 
work was done. 

Then she grew to hate the work, the honest work 
that kept idleness and mischief out of her pretty 



SALVATION ARMY. 



115 



head so many hours of the day. She longed to spend 
all her time in the gay streets. 

" If I were rich I would have this." she would say. 
pointing to some beautiful thing in the shop win- 
dows. 

By and by these things turned her silly brain until 
a foreman reproved her for doing her work care- 
lessly. Barbie flushed with anger, and worked all 
day in a fever of resentment. 

"I will pay him back." she thought, angrily. 
1 • when I am rich and entirely grown up and beauti- 
ful." She was beautiful then, poor lass, enough to 
break many an honest lad's heart. The foreman 
coming back glanced at the flushed face and tawny 
mane, and thought so himself. 

I don't wonder she hates the work. She is beau- 
tiful enough for something better— or worse." And 
then. idly, as men will, he made excuse to talk with 
her about her work. Her chance to "pay him 
back" was coining very soon, thought poor, silly 
Barbie: so. like many another daughter of Eve, she 
smiled on him. 

That evening on the street he found her alone, 
looking into a brilliantly-lighted jeweler's window. 

Isn' t that beautiful \ I never had a ring in all 
my life." 

He whispered something to her. only a word, but 
a few moments later the ring she coveted gleamed 
on her finger, and Barbie was moving on by the side 
of a man who could command rings and everything 
she coveted. 

"That night another star fell from heaven." 

1 * You have done for yourself now, my lass, ' ' she 



116 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



heard him say many hours later, and then he was 
gone. His cruel laugh rang in her ears. What had 
she done \ It was like a dream, but she had her 
beautiful ring that sparkled and sparkled. She hid 
it carefully and went back to her work. The fore- 
man was cautious; by-and-by he reproved her for 
some other negligence, and she resented it hotly. He 
who showered gifts on her when they were out of 
the roar of machinery could scold her like a child 
over a little fault in her work. 

"It's the work everybody despises. If I stop he 
will love me all the time." 

So she stopped coming to the mill, and after awhile 
the foreman stopped coming to her. She understood 
now what he had meant by saying: " You have done 
for yourself now, my lass." 

"Mother is right; I am a wild wean," she said to 
herself, sobbing. If she had not been afraid, she 
would have gone back then to the little cottage. But 
before she could make up her mind to that she 
found another " friend," who took her away to Lon- 
don." 

"I have a wife, Barbie, who treats me badly, so Til 
stay with you, my beautiful one, and love you 
always, and you will never know but that we are 
married." 

"He loves me truly, truly," she thought. She 
was very weary of being wild, yet she knew she 
could not undo the past, and this seemed a haven of 
security. They went w$ to London, and for a long 
time he was kind to her, and Barbie was happy 
when she did not think much. 

But after a time he grew careless, and one day he 



SALVATION ARMY, 



117 



did not come home at all, but sent a letter saying lie 
had returned to his own wife, who was always too 
good for him. " She is not beautiful like you, my 
lass," he wrote, "but she is good, and will make a 
better man of me." 

This was the end of all Barbara's attempts to be 
good. She lay on her bed all night in the cold and 
dark, dry-eyed and desperate. 

"I will make men suffer," she said, clenching her 
little hands, now covered with shining rings. "I 
hate them. I will see all of life, and make them pay 
for it." 

She was very gay for awhile. Men were willing 
to pay for the sight of her bright, beautiful, reckless 
face. She surrounded herself with companions and 
rich belongings, among which she moved like a queen. 

But even in these things the course is downward. 
There came a time when a lower class of men haunted 
her brilliant salons. Then she had to give them up. 
She wore soiled dresses because she could not buy 
new ones, and her toilet-table had many new cos- 
metics. Her slippered, tender feet grew to know 
untrodden ways. She thought and thought, and 
then found ways to forget to think. 

Five years after the phrase, ''You have done for 
yourself now, my lass, ' ' rang in her ears, she walked 
back to the cottage on the moor. Little Jean was 
a woman, but she still sat on the hassock at her 
mother s feet putting her patch work together. 

The door opened, and a figure, wild and storm- 
beaten, dragged itself in. 

" I have come home, mother!" Jean caught her 
as she fell by the hearth shivering. 



118 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



' ' You can not come. I will not be the talk of the 
villagers. Yon will ruin Jean, who has a lover. Is 
it not enough that you have done for yourself?" 
The stern lips began to tremble, and in a moment 
the mother in her would have conquered, but Barbie 
was as proud as she. 

"Jean has a lover? Who, pray; Sandy? I met 
him on the moor just now coming with lagging step 
to meet his love. He did not use to come to me 
that way. Lovers are unfaithful. I' ve had them — 
scores of them — and they all left me; but I think 
Sandy won Id walk faster even yet for me than for 
you, my bonnie Jean " She arose to go, an angry 
glitter in her eyes. 

"Is that him now? Then I'll go and gie him 
greeting." 

' ' Leave the lad alone. He' s a good lad. You spoil 
everything you touch," said her mother. 

But Barbara only laughed and left the house. 
Jean waited long, but Sandy never came. Her pure 
face grew white with a horror of what she did not 
understand, and then she hardened toward Barbara. 
She, whose heart had always been so tender toward 
every living creature, grew to hate her wild sister. 
She sat in the little cottage on the moor and stitched, 
and by-and-by there were two women's faces with 
hard lines about the mouth instead of one. 

And Barbie, with a reckless hate of everything she 
had once loved, said, in echo of a phrase that haunted 
her, to a fresh-colored Scotchman whose love for her 
had revived for a moment and then died, "You have 
done for yourself now, my lad. Jean will never 
have you. Make the best of it." 



SALVATIOX AE3IT. 



119 



And on the face of the earth there was one more 
wanderer. 

Lower and lower, down and deeper down through 
all the strata of East End London vice she went. 
The beautiful hair grew matted and wild; the eyes 
were red and sunken: paint glowed on white, wan 
cheeks. The gutters knew her. the uniformed offi- 
ces were familiar with all her haunts. 

••Some day she will he found murdered by that 
WMtechapel fiend," they said, and warned her. She 
shivered, and then took another drink to drown her 
fears. Often she had not the money: then she would 
crawl into a doorway in a blind court and hide, get- 
ting what sleep she might. Winter found her shel- 
terless. She wandered along a bleak street, stopping 
at every lodging-house where her kind were sheltered 
for a few pennies. But Barbie had no pennies, and 
could not gain admittance. Once she stopped a 
gentleman and asked him for them, but he pushed 
her out of his path. Then she snatched a woman's 
purse and dodged into a little court, found shelter, 
and the stream of relentless humanity went on. 

Another night there was no one to rob. The cruel 
air cut her rlesh through her thin garments. The 
houses were darkened by the fog. and she could not 
see her way. Suddenly she saw a light gleaming 
through some red curtains. A door was open and 
she heard singing. 

"A dance." she thought. *'• I wonder if I could 
rind a partner to dance with me." 

She crawled into the place, fell into a seat by a hot 
stove, and fell asleep. There was noise of some kind, 
but it was not clear to her. Someone shook her at 



120 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



last, and there was a woman leaning over her — a 
woman with a clean face. That was marvelous to 
Barbara. She staggered np. 

" Yes, m go; yes, I'll go. I'm not drunk. Don't 
lock me up." 

" She's sick, body and soul. I'll stay with her 
here until she gets well." Then Barbie knew no 
more until morning, except that it was warm, and 
that a woman staid beside her holding her hand and 
murmuring throughout the night. Once she heard 
a name that brought back a vision of the little kirk 
on the moor, her mother's face, and Jean's and 
Sandy's. 

"Come with me and get food now," said the little 
woman. She had on a queer, plain dress and big 
bonnet. Barbara went with her to a place which was 
full of women just like her, all with white, pure 
faces. 

Afterward she knew nothing for a long while, ex- 
cept that she was in bed; that these white faces were 
over and about her, and that her body and mind 
were slowly getting well. Lying there, she heard a 
good deal she had almost forgotten. 

' ' That' s not for me, not for me. Mother and Jean 
will have that, but not I." She lay sobbing many 
hours at a time Opening her eyes she would some- 
times find a blue-robed figure by her bed kneeling. 
"Do they think it is for me, too?" she asked her- 
self, wonderingly. 

' ' Where am I V ' she asked one day. 

" In the Rescue Home of the Salvation Army, and 
getting well, praise God." 

" Getting well V No, she would never get well. 



SALVATION ARMY. 



121 



Her body might, but not her soul. She looked at 
herself in a hand-glass one day and saw that she 
was beautiful again. The tawny mane had been 
clipped into close rings; the eyes were large and 
bright. 

" They would come back to me now — the men," 
she thought. Then she hid her face in her hands 
and sobbed. "I hate them. I hate all of them, 
but there is nothing else for me.' ! 

"There is something else," said a soft voice. 
"Listen." And then was read again the story of 
the woman of old. Mary Magdalene, who had sinned 
like her and been forgiven, because though ber 
sins had been many she had loved much." 

"The kirk and sticldt parson and mother and 
Jean would not forgive me. I am shut out," she 
cried. 

' i Neither would the Pharisees forgive Mary Mag- 
dalene, but Jesus Christ opened up to her the gates 
of paradise. It is yourself who sinned. None but 
yourself can suffer or be forgiven. None but your- 
self can repent. God be with you." And having 
planted the seed and watered it the little woman in 
blue let it grow. 

There were many dark hours in the night, many 
fights alone, many useless regrets and days of hope- 
less pain, but the body was slowly healing, and one 
day she felt her limbs once more strong and young. 
Poor Barbie, she was only twenty-live. 

u I will go now and make my way again. They 
will be glad to have me back." She stood in the 
door of the rude building and looked out into the 
cruel street. 



122 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



"I can not go, I can not. Lord save me! Christ 
help me ! If Thou canst help I will believe. Oh, 
my God, forsake me not. There is none other to 
help." 

They f onnd her there in the dnst of the street, her 
head bowed across the portal, and took her in, 

Another blue-robed figure haunted Whitechapel. 
A beautiful white face with a head of bright, bur- 
nished hair under a blue bonnet was seen in all its 
familiar haunts. She knew, ah, too well, where sin 
and shame and degradation and heart-break hid 
themselves, went in fearlessly and dragged them in 
all their hideousness into the light of day. Some- 
times these women laughed at her, knowing what 
she had been; sometimes they looked at the trans- 
formation, and listened to her words. Lieutenant 
Baillie was known from one end of London to the 
other. Her tireless feet never rested. Great circles 
came about the bright brown eyes, and blue veins 
showed on the restless hands. Still she labored for 
nearly a year, and then a certain little bed in the 
Rescue Home she had always kept, welcomed her 
back again. She lay there staring at the rough 
ceiling and the blue-robed figures flitting about, her 
hands folded patiently. 

"Have I loved enough? Only a little year in 
which to atone. Have I atoned, Lord Jesus ?" she 
murmured constantly. ' ' I have sinned much, suf- 
fered much, and my love has been great," she said 
on the last day, when the bright eyes dimmed and 
the little frail hands loosened their clasp. Years of 
sin had got in their work on the fair body, but the 
soul was regenerated. 



SALVATION ARMY. 



123 



"You have done for yourself now, lass," the 
shadow of a memory floated back to her. "For time 
and for eternity. The stickit parsons do a deal of 
harm. They make people hard, they are unforgiv- 
ing like the Pharisees. But the Christ forgives." 
A glad smile was transfixed on lips that stiffened 
even as she spoke. 

Only the blue uniformed people were at the 
funeral. The mother and Jean heard of it long after- 
ward, and wept when Sandy returned and told them. 
But at the funeral there was only a band of fanat- 
ical, bizarre, blue-uniformed soldiers of the Lord, 
who did not mourn, but who rejoiced in strange un- 
orthodox fashion over a comrade who fell fighting 
and had been "promoted." 

Idlers in the streets paused to see the gay caval- 
cade; the rude coffin draped in "yellow, red, and 
blue," preceded by a band that played martial 
music and followed by a blithe and happy proces- 
sion. Some of them shuddered at what seemed sac- 
riligeous, others stared in astonishment, and still 
others found occasion for mirth. But somehow 
among these soldiers of the Lord, a weary soul had 
found rest, and a heart that had hungered and 
thirsted had been filled and satisfied. A fitting 
requiem for the parting of one such in this guise. 
Hallelujah! 



CHAPTER IX. 

A good deal of surprise had been felt that I had 
expressed no desire to see my dear mamma, so, as I 
was assured nothing of any importance would hap- 



124 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



pen that day, I boarded a train and came back to the 
city ostensibly to see her, while the Captain came np 
later to interview the Major, partly on my account. 

I was driven straight to a hotel, spent a few hours 
writing out notes of my adventures, and then went 
shopping. I got a black jersey, some blue surah 
silk, and ribbon for strings, unearthed a black La 
Tosca hat from my belongings, and denuded it of 
its feathers and bows preparatory to converting it 
into a Salvation bonnet. 

I got back Tuesday morning and was greeted with 
effusion. 

" What did your mamma say about your joining 
the Army V ' asked Clara. Clara always wanted to 
know, you know. 

" She wouldn't let me come to lunch in this old 
dress, and said if I put on the uniform I needn't 
come back any more." 

There was sympathy in the camp of the Salvation- 
ists. Once started on my string of fibs I had to go 
on, and the mamma so easily invented became in- 
vested with all the fashionable follies. 

" I just wouldn't put on a stylish dress, so all my 
meals were sent to my room to punish me." 

"Dear child!" 

66 You're having a hard time of it," quoth Jessie. 
She probably meant that my powers of invention 
were being pretty severely taxed. 

I sat down and trimmed that hat. Its classic 
shape was swathed in folds of dull blue silk spread 
out to hide its frivolous dents and curves ; the 
strings were put on where all the rest of its 
beauty could be tied down. I put it on, tied the 



SALVATION ARMY. 



125 



strings under my chin, and straightened out the 
bows demurely. 

' ' Oh, how pretty !' ' cried the Captain. With due 
regard for Bertha s morals I must say that sesthet- 
ically she is "off." 

"Brave Birdie !" exclaimed Clara. 

" God bless you !" ejeculated " Trotter" — Adju- 
tant Trotter, who spends his time trotting all over 
this division conducting special services. He was 
in Englewood for the day, and was chiefly occupied 
in casting covetous looks on Bertha. 

Jessie and I then went over on Wentworth ave- 
nue to get my blue skirt, which a dressmaker had 
undertaken to have finished in a day. It went on ; 
it hung in folds anything but classic ; the reeds of 
my underskirt were turned up ignominiously, and I 
stood sans tumour, but inflated about the feet like a 
toy balloon. 

"'Look upon this picture, then on this.' Not 
much of a falling off, is there V ' But Jessie did not 
reply ; she had got beyond that, and leaned against 
the wall trying not to look disgusted. One thing 
was certain — I was a full-fledged ' ' Salvation lass. " 
The dressmaker looked her disapproval. 

"I wouldn't put that thing on for a kingdom," 
she sniffed, contemptuously. 

' ' Not even for the Kingdom of Heaven \ Oh, you 
are mistaken ! You are utterly wrong I" 

A week ago I should not have dared say so impu- 
dent a thing in Jessie's presence for fear she would 
spoil the effect by a laugh, but my dear girl had got 
considerably subdued and only stared at me. 

"I've had enough to make me mad. Two of my 



126 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



sons got converted and want to put on the uniform, 
but they shan' t do it. They only make guys of them- 
selves — walking advertisements. Do you suppose I 
want to go into the streets with them, and have 
people yell 6 Salvation Army' at me % Not much !" 

' 6 But you wanted them converted V ' 

" Yes ; they are better boys since then, but why 
must they make fools of themselves ? They drive 
me nearly crazy." Turning to Jessie she added : 

" Why don't you persuade your cousin not to do 
this ? She is foolish. You girls have been well 
raised. What will your life be in this uniform, 
howling, living like beggars V 

' * It will be spent in the service of God, ' ' I said, 
solemnly. No one should say, afterward, that I 
didn't play my part well. 

6 ' Fiddlesticks ! I suppose you think everyone 
else is going to hell but you." 

This was too much for our equanimity, and it was 
fortunate that just then one of the boys came in, a 
young man whom I recognized as a soldier. 

" God bless you!" he said, fervently, when he 
saw my uniform. I gave his hand a consolatory 
squeeze as his mother sighed impatiently. We got 
downstairs and into the street, I in my regimentals. 

' ' Salvation Army !" yelled a small boy. A young 
lady giggled, and two school girls stood still and 
stopped chewing gum to stare at me. It didn't even 
annoy me. Since 1 was with the Salvation Army I 
preferred to be of them. I felt as placid and as 
justly celebrated as our lake breeze. But poor 
Jessie ; she shrunk and shivered like a tropical 
flower in an icy blast. 



SALVATION ARMY. 



127 



We stopped to get some oysters for supper to have 
a little ''spread." as Father and Mother Evans were 
to be guests. A Salvation clerk waited on us, God- 
blessed me in particular, and made our cup run over 
with joy and oysters. At the butcher shop Amy 
smiled on us. gave us down weight, and split the 
penny to our profit. We went all over the town to 
purchase edibles, and a holy halo was shed around 
me by the smiles of the devout and the persecutions 
of the publican. 

"Bertha said I would feel better, and I do," I 
remarked serenely. 

"Oh. come on: let's get off the street," said 
Jessie. But I felt like taking a stroll in my new 
suit. It isn't often I have a chance to show off, and 
I didn't propose to curtail this occasion. 

When we got back to the house I tied a handker- 
chief embroidered in yellow, red. and blue, Salva- 
tion colors, about my neck, but had to wait for the 
pins and badges. I took considerable pains to have 
my make-up historically correct. Then I consti- 
tuted myself cook and made an oyster stew on the 
gasoline stove, singing. " What a friend we have in 
Jesus." in imitation of the cadet's trained voice, so 
as to make the illusion complete. 

We had almost given up our guests, but just as 
my stew was done they arrived. There was no time 
to get more oysters. 

"What shall we do 1" I cried. 

"Pray that it will be enough and it will be," said 
the cadet. So she prayed and I also put in some 
more water and it was enough. The cadet and I 
combined were equal to any emergency. 



128 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



That is a pretty habit they have of calling all old 
people " father" and "mother." Father and 
Mother Evans were the parents of our beloved 
Major, and a right hale and hearty couple they were. 
"Father" was Welshman like "Taffy," celebrated 
in rhyme without reason, though I have no reason 
for thinking he bore out the rest of the description 
of his fellow-countryman. By the powers of divina- 
tion and a smattering of Max Muller I surmised 
Father Evans' nationality. 

"How did you know?" he asked in astonish- 
ment. 

"Oh, my grandmother was Welsh and her name 
was Evans," I recited glibly. This didn't commit 
me to relationship with our guests, as the Evanses 
are as thick in Wales as the Smiths are elsewhere; 
yet it was a bond. 

And then w^e had a literary conversation concern- 
ing King Arthur, who really lived at one time. 
Indeed he did; and about Lancelot and Camelot 
and the white lady du lac who still holds excalibar 
in durance, and Merlin, that old poetical reprobrate 
who let Vivian curl herself about his neck in a very 
reprehensible fashion for a man who was posing as 
a seer, poet, philosopher, and magician for all future 
generations of Welshmen. I discovered that 
Father Evans was quite well enough posted in this 
literary lore of his native land to pass for an 
authority. A Welshman may not always know 
what street he lives on, but he is generally up in 
these things. Why, had he not seen the town of 
Merlin and "rode down to Camelot" and sat in 
King Arthur's seat (which is popularly supposed to 



SALVATION ARMY. 



120 



be nearer Edinburgh than Wales). Of course they 
all lived! 

Father Evans was not disposed to admit that he 
belonged to the Celtic race. The Irish were Celts, 
and he professed a great contempt for Paddy. I 
tried him on ' ' Cimri ' ' and he gave in at that magic 
word and bubbled over with enthusiasm. 

" I wass sure it wass not Celt but Cimri," he said, 
perfectly satisfied over his little victory. " The 
Welsh are Cimri, the Scotch Gael, and the Irish 
Celt," 

"What are you going to do about the Bretons? 
They come in somewhere." 

"The Britons? Oh, they are all pig-headed 
English," with a laugh over his own wit. ' £ I got my 
wife from England, and she iss not so pig-headed 
since she joined the Army." 

"How do you remember all that?" asked Bertha 
in admiration. "I can't even remember the Decla- 
ration of Independence. " 

"That iss efen of no importance to remember," 
said Father Evans decisively. "Not like these 
other things that are older than the Christ." 

But all the time that Father Evans was glorying 
in the past of his inglorious country the future and 
its possibilities were looming up in the latest 
American edition of the Evanses. This was the 
Major's little girl Lizzie, who had come with them. 
She was about four years old and exceedingly self- 
possessed. 

" She's been given to God," said the cadet to me 
in an awe-struck whisper. 

"Has she? Good gracious, when did it happen?" 

9 



180 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



I looked in vain, for there was nothing peculiar 
looking about Lizzie which testified to this remark- 
able occurrence. 

' ' When she was a little bit of a baby. She tes- 
tifies now in public." 

Lizzie looked complacent, evidently used to hear- 
ing her virtues extolled. 

"Lizzie, are you a soldier of the Lord?" I asked. 
You should have seen the scorn flash from her blue 
eyes. 

"A soldier! Of course she's not a soldier," ex- 
claimed Clara. " Why she's a captain. Aren't you, 
Lizzie?" 

"I'm a major," said Miss Lizzie, promptly. "I'm 
going to be a marshal." 

"Hear the little angel ! v they cried, crowding 
about her. "Now, Lizzie, testify for Jesus." 

But Lizzie wouldn't, probably thinking she had 
made enough concessions to curiosity. Lizzie was 
arrayed in a blue flannel dress trimmed with silver 
braid, and kept her hair back with a teeth-all-around 
celluloid comb. Part of the time she sucked her 
thumb, a well-knowm habit of infantile angels who 
are early given to God. 

"Vanity, vanity, all is vanity," wihether it be for 
earthly or heavenly adjuncts. Lizzie w^as quite as 
proud of her saintship as another child of her curls, 
her toys, or her clothes. 

We went to the meeting presently, carrying Liz- 
zie along like a trophy of war. She sat gravely 
among the soldiers, beat a tambourine, and frowned 
on the giddy ones in the audience who were not dis- 
posed to consider her seriously. 



SALVATION ARMY. 



131 



As for me, the time for decisive action had come. 
I had been among them live days, and had pnt on 
their uniform, but had neither prayed nor testified 
in public, so that I feared they would think me 
lukewarm. When the Captain asked me if I would 
do something, I volunteered to sing a solo. 

I have sung dozens of times before, but to get up 
in that uniform, the target for 300 pairs of eyes, 
knowing that for most of them it was a new antic, 
was decidedly a ' 4 cross." All I could do to give an 
ordinary look to it was to request the tambourines 
to be silent on the chorus. As I got up a volley of 
blessings followed me: 

" God bless her." 

" May the Lord strengthen her." 

"Give her faith." 

"Amen." 

"Hallelujah !" 

What was the matter with me ? I was all right, but 
they gave the usual impression that there was some- 
thing abnormal about me and my performance, and 
that I needed a spiritual tonic to set me up. It 
amused me and vexed me. I sang in an ordinary 
manner, but debated inwardly whether to turn a 
double handspring at the end so as to satisfy the 
congregation that it was getting its money's worth. 

" God will bless you," said Captain Bertha, as I 
sat down. ' ' You feel better now, don' t you V ' 

" Oh, yes; I feel better." I would have felt forty 
ways to please Bertha. 

" I' ve got my mother here to-night — Mother Evans 
— who will speak to you. Come along, Mother," 
announced Bertha. 



132 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



Mother Evans spoke; then Father Evans, and as 
he was not on his favorite theme — antiquarian Ap- 
Johns — he was not particularly edifying. The infant 
phenomenon of holiness refused to speak and sucked 
her thumb sedately. At the close of the perform- 
ance I was congratulated on all sides because of 
my uniform. 

' £ God bless you, ' ' said one good Metb odist brother. 
I'm not a Salvationist, but I like to see a girl show 
the Lord's color." 

"I sent all my gay dresses home to sister Annie,' 1 
said pretty, blonde Ida, wdio " worked out." I don't 
wear the uniform, but I come very near it. No more 
gay dresses for me." 

"Hallelujah! Let's shout!" exclaimed a soldier. 
' ' We make a lot of noise, but I don't know who has 
a better right. People who are happy have no need 
to hide it. God bless you." 

' ' All the rest will come easy after you have put 
on this dress and sung in public. You can soon lead 
meetings and 'raise tunes.'" Well, in that last 
respect I did not hope to rival Clara. 

"It seems to come hard for you to speak for 
Jesus," said Bertha, on the way home. "I told the 
Major about that, and he thinks if you go to the 
Training Home you w r ould grow used to it before 
going into the field." 

"What is the Training Home?" 

"The Major will tell you all about it to-morrow. 
He is coming down to talk with you." So I was to 
have a talk with the Major. Well, ' ' Come on Mac- 
duff." 



SALVATION ARMY. 



133 



CHAPTER X. 

Wednesday morning we got up earlier than usual, 
and as the Major was expected to put in his official 
appearance in the afternoon, we prepared to spend 
the early hoars of the day in making "visitations." 

I like that word. The more I look at it the more 
it reminds me of a plague. It is a word which oc- 
curs often enough in Salvation statistics and ordi- 
nary conversation to make a nervous person feel 
" hystericky , " as the cadet puts it. Under her 
manipulations, from Jessie's account, my impres- 
sions of what the term was capable seem to have 
been justified. The cadet and Jessie went together, 
and I was prone to observe that Millie forgot to pray 
before starting. She was occasionally subject to 
these little lapses of memory, 

Jessie reported afterward that Millie' s modus ope- 
randi of bringing these ' ' visitations ' ' down on the 
heads of good people who had never done anything 
to deserve them, but were trying to serve the Lord 
according to their lights, was not characterized by 
plasticity. 

She would pause at the gate and say : " Lord help 
us to bring comfort to the afflicted. " Then they 
would enter and find the family in a very undesira- 
ble state of cheerfulness and prosperity. The par- 
ticular kind and degree of consolation Millie kept on 
tap was not required. This seemed to put her out, 
and she had nothing to say except " God bless you," 
until it was time to go; then she would remark with 
startling originality, "Well, we must be getting a 



134 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



move on us," and they got a "move on them," 
whatever that method of locomotion chanced to be. 
Poor Jessie ! 

I spent a morning with an angel entertained all 
aware. Bertha knelt down with me before starting 
and prayed : 

' ' Dear Father, bless us we pray Thee. Let us 
take comfort and blessings to those we shall visit 
this morning. Put the right words into our mouths 
to speak, that they be not in vain. Bless dear Birdie 
and give her faith and courage to speak for Thee. 
Now, dear Father, go with us and bless us. Amen ' ' 
It was all so simple and plain with Bertha that even 
I could take it in and profit by it. 

We went into the bright, sunlit street, and Bertha 
slipped her arm about me, school-girl fashion. We 
got the usual glances of amused disdain, but I was 
indifferent, because I felt in the company of the peer 
of most of them. We stepped into the post-office to 
send a money-order to Ballington Booth for some 
supplies, and then went into the street again. 

"It is so good just to live on such days. Who 
can doubt God when he sends the sunlight and sweet 
air?" said my companion, and I too felt at peace 
with the world and no hankerings after its vanities. 

Two men took off their hats to Bertha, and we met 
two old ladies; one hobbling along cn a stick stopped 
us. "Dear heart, dear girl; out doing good as 
usual !" she said. 

" God bless you. How are you, mother ? Pretty 
well to-day f asked Bertha. 

" No, not well. But the air is so sweet. God 
sends these days to let us know how it will be in 



SALVATION ARMY. 



135 



paradise. But I will be better over yonder, soon.' ' 
No one could doubt her meaning. " Good-by ; you 
have better work to do than talking to old women." 

" Take my arm, mother, over this crossing. Now 
you are all right. Good-by. God bless you abun- 
dantly." 

" Is she a Salvationist V ' I asked. 

" No, a Presbyterian, I think, and quite an aris- 
tocrat, but she is not proud or foolish like so many 
of them." A policeman stood and watched Bertha 
with a sardonic sneer eminently becoming to his pa- 
trician face. After we had passed him the Captain 
laughed, contentedly. 

£ ' That policeman was going to arrest me for march- 
ing on the streets. He came up to the house once 
and warned me. That was on Sunday, too, and my 
lieutenant was for marching anyhow, and letting 
him arrest us, but I said : ' No, not until other 
means have been tried.' We had arranged for a 
big march that evening, and he spoiled it ; but I told 
them to wait, we would march Monday night. Mon- 
day I went to the board and got a permit. They did 
not want us to march at first, but I said as I got 
up: 

" ' Oh, very well. We are getting the roughs off 
your streets by fifteen minutes' noise in the evenings. 
Some of them are becoming good citizens by means 
of our influence, not to mention their souls. We 
won't march if you will undertake to answer for all 
the souls that are lost by our not marching.' They 
let us march, and the next time I saw my policeman 
I stopped and read his number ' 125 ' aloud. I guess 
he felt pretty cheap. I wonder how many arrests 



136 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



we have saved him by the men we have got into the 
meetings." 

" Your audiences are so quiet. I have always be- 
fore seen them noisy." 

' ' They were when we first came here. My lieu- 
tenant used to lead the worst ones out by the collar. 
One set of young men used to come in purposely to 
make a disturbance. I knew it and had tried every- 
thing. One night I got down on my knees and 
prayed for them by name, asking the Lord not to 
convert them, they were not civilized enough for 
that, but to arouse in them some instincts of manli- 
ness. They slunk out every one of them. After a 
few nights they came back and still come, but have 
not given any trouble since. None of them are con- 
verted yet." 

4 ' What makes them come V ' 

' ' I don't know, but they can't help it. They come 
for fun at first, and then they just sit and listen night 
after night. They surely must find it interesting in 
some way, though they try to pretend they do not; 
but, then, why do they come V ' 

As we were crossing the street above the post-office 
an old lady stopped us. "I've started to see a lady 
and have forgotten her name," she said, bewildered. 

' 'Well, mother, stop a moment and you will remem- 
ber. There is no hurry. I'll stay with you." 

"A son of hers goes to your meetings." 

"Oh, yes, Mrs. Lanyon. I'm going there now. 
Come along. Birdie, get on the other side and help 
her." She was a feeble old lady and was very con- 
fused, but trembling with delight. She clung to us, 
and we walked slowly down Englewood avenue to a 



SALVATION ABMY. 



137 



row of new flats smelling of paint. We entered one 
of these, and the old lady was greeted by her friends. 

Preparations were going on in the kitchen for a 
golden wedding in which old Mrs. Lanyon was to 
figure as a silver-haired bride. Bertha went into the 
kitchen, where two young women were baking cakes, 
and I sat with the old ladies in the sitting-room. It 
was a bright home, and the prospective bride was a 
pink of perfection, with a complexion a twenty- 
year-old one might envy. I took a Bible and read a 
couple of the Psalms to the old ladies. 

"That is so good. I can not see well to read. 
Since he was converted Charlie reads to me. What 
an angel of mercy the Captain is to the young men. 
They worship her as if she were a saint." 

' ' She isn't far from that, mother. I' ve lived with 
her and know." And then Bertha came back. 

"I want you to come to my golden wedding to- 
morrow night. It won't be like a wedding unless 
you are here." 

"After the meeting, mother, if you would like to 
have me. Let us have a little prayer now." She 
knelt and prayed after her simple fashion A little 
child crept into my arms as we knelt, and the father 
came and stood in the door with his hat off. 

"Come Birdie, let's go, dear. Good -by; God bless 
you all. No; I'll find the way out. Don't let me 
disturb you/' Their eyes followed her almost with 
reverence, so simple, good, and full of the truest cour- 
tesy was she. 

She was blushing a little with the consciousness of 
their regards when she got out, and laughed in apol- 
ogy for them. " Old people are always so grateful 



138 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



for a little attention. I think they feel neglected 
sometimes." And that was Bertha's explanation of 
their love for her. 

We went on to a flat above the Salvation Army 
hall. A large woman with a worn, harassed face 
met ns and took ns into a neat parlor. She had a 
good deal of diffidence that gradually melted away 
until she burst into tears. 

"Is he as bad as ever?" asked Bertha, and the 
woman's little boy slipped his arms about his 
mother's neck. " Do you pray for him ?" 

" Oh, I pray ! My God, who could pray if not I 
I pray!" 

' ' Thy will be done ! Do you remember % It will 
all come out right." 
"It is hard." 

"Yes, it is hard. Let me pray with you, to see if 
it will be any easier." She knelt, with her arm about 
the sobbing woman, and sent up a petition for help, 
comfort, and peace for a sorely tried soul such as I 
have never heard equaled in simplicity and absolute 
trust. When we got up, the tears were streaming 
down the poor woman's face. 

"No matter what comes, you always help me. 
Come often, come always. ' ' She parted from Bertha 
with many tears and kisses, holding her in her arms 
as if life did not have much else for her to hold to. 

' ' I like to go to that woman, because she needs 
human sympathy as much as the love of G-od. Oh, 
how many there are with sorrow eating their hearts 
out and no one to tell it to. Oh, my Father, enable 
me to reach them. Some of them have not even 
found the Savior." 



SALVATION ARMY, 



139 



" Will you tell me lier story V 

" It is an old story, the story of nearly half the 
sorrow of good women. Her husband drinks. He 
is a mechanic and earns $15 a week. When he gets 
his pay he lays off a whole week and drinks it up. 
Maybe the next week he feels ashamed and gives her 
everything he earns. She keeps boarders, but her 
husband drives them away by his bad behavior. 
Oh, it is pitiful. She is such a good woman, too." 
Bertha looked far off, with a sad expression on her 
face. 

i 'God is good. Never doubt that, Birdie," she 
said, at last, while her whole face was serene again, 
and shining with an internal light. 

" They seem to love you here." 

"Yes, a few. I will be going away now very 
soon." 

"Where?" 

" Where the Lord sends me. You know we only 
stay a few months in a place, and I came here last 
February. I should have gone before this, but I 
was sick a good while, and went home for ten weeks, 
leaving my lieutenant in charge. I was worn out, 
but there was no money to take me home. It would 
take $9 to go to Minneapolis, and the Major told me 
to ask for this. But I couldn't; I'm not a good beg- 
gar, so he came down. He told them I would have 
to go home to rest, and he wanted them to pay my 
expenses to Minneapolis, $9 No one spoke for 
awhile, and I felt so badly. 

" At last, one man got up and said it wasn't the 
money, but they didn't want me to go away. If the 
Major would promise I should come back to Engle- 



140 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



wood they would pay my expenses both. ways. 
Then they wanted me to come around through the 
audience and collect it myself. I took up a tam- 
bourine and went down the aisle and back and had 
$18 in a few moments. I was crying so I could hardly 
see for the way they blessed me. The people have 
been so good to me!" 

Dear Captain Bertha Leyh ! Who would not be 
good to her, when simplicity and goodness and 
truth and self-abnegation are so rare — so rare that 
any community could afford to pay high for the 
spectacle of it in its midst. And here she labored 
among them without money or price, even a bare 
subsistence not assured by any employer, giving 
them all the priceless riches of her own great heart 
and pure devoted life, things which can never be 
bought. 

" I left my lieutenant in charge, and she, afraid 
of losing what we had gained, began to pet and 
coax the soldiers. When I came back it made me 
sad. She was young, and didn't know any better. 

" ' Do you have to be coaxed to serve your Savior, 
and to testify for Him? Are you saying you love 
God just to please me? Then it does not please me, 
and is not pleasing nor acceptable to God. If you 
are converted to me or to the lieutenant, then it is time 
you staid away. If an officer comes whom you do 
not like, then you would stay away from the meet- 
ings and deny your Savior,' I said to them. I 
never coax anyone. If people love God they will 
testify for Him.' ' 

We went to a house on Sixty-sixth street next, 
and found the family moving. A big, pretty, un- 



SALVATION ARMY. 



141 



tidy girl was superintending, and two little girls 
were doing all the work. I had seen the little girls 
in the inarch and on the platform. We left imme- 
diately, preceded by the little ones to their father 1 s 
blacksmith shop, almost next door. 

" Those two poor motherless girls do all the work. 
The older sister works in a family because she can't 
get what she wants at home, and leaves them. She 
should stay at home and be a mother to them. Her 
father may feel compelled to marry again, and step- 
mothers are not always fortunate." 

We stopped to speak with the father, a blacksmith, 
who came out of his shop. He laid a great brawny 
hand on the youngest child's head and shook 
Bertha's hand. 

" They do the best they can," he said. 

"I'm very sure of that. Don't let it trouble you." 

' ' We are moving down on Fifty-ninth street, and 
will be nearer the hall. Often I was kept at work 
and was afraid to let the children go so far alone. 
Now they will go always." 

Later we met a woman, who said: "Did you 
meet Dick? He started down to your house." 

" Is he well enough?' ' 

"He is getting about the house again, and has 
been waiting for a pleasant day to come to see you." 

" I should have visited him oftener, but was afraid 
to annoy you." 

" If you had known how he wanted you to come! 
He used to lie and fret for you, and when I wanted 
to send for you he would say: i No, she is off see- 
ing people who need her worse. She is never idle.' 
But he used to want you." 



142 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



6 ' I am sorry you did not let me know. God bless 
you." 

"God bless you for what you have done. Dick 
was a wild boy before he heard you speak for Jesus. 
Good-by." Then we got away and back home. 

"Now we will have something to eat, Birdie. 
God is good; He is always good. Sometimes I have 
gone to bed on straw, wich nothing in the house for 
breakfast, and no money, yet He always sent food 
by the time it was needed. We need have no fear. 
Take all that beef; I have bad teeth." Dear Bertha! 
But I didn't take it. If the recording angel did not 
enter these gracious little fibs of hers, as a higher 
kind of truths than all the ungracious statements of 
facts that hurt mankind, then he Las less discrimina- 
tion than I give him credit for. 

We ate the frugal meal and talked merrily about 
the elegant cut on my new uniform. "I think 
beauty has its place. I admire beautiful clothes as 
much as anyone, and it is a positive duty for some 
to wear them. The President's wife and the wives 
of our representatives in foreign lands should be a 
credit to their country in this matter as well as in 
courtly manners and education, but for me they 
would be all out of place. But one thing we must 
be — clean and exquisitely neat. If I have only 
one dress, it must be well made and fit to perfection. 
My only extravagance is having collars and cuffs 
laundered at a steam laundry. The few cents spent 
that way each week go a long way as the force of 
example. The first evidence of conviction of sin is 
to make a dirty person ' clean up.' ' Cleanliness is 
next to godliness.' " 



SALVATION ARMY. 



143 



It was like reading a gospel of right living in 
every small particular to hear her talk. She made 
one feel a beautiful purpose and meaning in every 
homely detail of life. Clara, the cadet, and Jessie 
came in presently and finished the crumbs left from 
our feast. We waited all the afternoon for the 
Major, who never came. 

"I'll tell you, dear; you go to see him to-morrow. 
He is busy, and is going away Friday for several 
weeks. But he wants to see you, so you had bet- 
ter go." 

It was so decided. After the meeting that night 
I slept by Bertha' s side. I lay awake long ponder- 
ing over many things, chiefest among them being a 
wonder as to how many of the soldiers of Engle- 
wood were converted to Caxot. Bertha Leyh. Even 
that would be good. Even after she has left them it 
will still be good to have believed absolutely, in the 
spirit of a follower, in a personification of good. It 
seemed I could see a shining pathway lying where 
she had passed. £ ' Oh, ye of little faith ' ' in human 
nature ! It was good for me also to believe entirely 
in the purity, soundness, sweetness, and unselfish 
devotion of one human creature. In so far as her 
beauty of character, and my recognition of her entire 
sincerity were concerned I was converted to Capt. 
Bertha Leyh myself, and I do not believe it was dis- 
pleasing in His sight. 



144 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



CHAPTER XI. 

The plan of "three in a bed" answers very well 
provided each occupant lays out as straight as if he 
were dead, otherwise it has its drawbacks. 

Once or tAvice it happened that in the distribution 
of sleeping places, Clara became one of the elements 
that conspired against my chances of sleep. Clara 
was big; she was a lusty lass. Occasionally she 
flopped over into the middle of the bed regardless 
of obstructions or the claims of other inhabitants. 
Then she had a habit of imagining herself the hypot- 
enuse of a right-angled triangle, and demonstrated 
to my satisfaction that the square on her side more 
than equaled the square on the other two sides. 
Moreover, if one wanted to get up she proved an in- 
surmountable difficulty, neither to be turned aside 
nor climbed over. 

As I had to get up at seven o'clock, Thursday 
morning, to catch a train, I tried the force of argu- 
ment and my fists on Clara to no effect. She still 
slumbered and slept and I was still wedged in a tri 
angle with Bertha. 

" Get up," I screamed. "If you don't I'll make 
jollification jelly of you." 

That fetched her. Clara had a keen sense of the 
ridiculous, and went off in a peal of laughter. After 
I had got up she tumbled bsfck again and went fast 
asleep. 

The fire was out and I dressed in the cold. Jessie 
had got up and was wrestling with the gasoline 
stove, trying to get me some breakfast, but the gas- 



SALVATION AKMY. 



145 



oline did not hold out to burn. I consumed a cracker 
and my^desire for something more substantial, and 
walked to the station through the crisp October 
morning air. At the station, for the first time since 
corning to Englewood, Jessie secured a paper — The 
Tribune — but by the time I had glanced over the 
headlines the train arrived. 

It was a suburban train with passengers from 
Joliet and all intermediate points. It was crowded 
and jammed. The passengers stuck their heads out 
of the windows to gaze on me and my uniform. 

"Oh, Lord!" gasped Jessie, shrinking like a sen: 
sitive plant at a rude touch. Jessie never did get 
used to being looked at as if she were some rare 
animal which the dear public felt it incumbent to 
stir up with a stick. But I entered a car and walked 
the whole length of it in search of a seat as non- 
chalantly as if sixty pairs of eyes were not stabbing 
me. 

44 Well, for the land's sake, what is that?" ex- 
claimed one lady, starting up and adjusting her eye- 
glasses, and I was audibly explained by someone 
who had evidently traveled to some purpose. 

People put down their papers to look at me. A 
baby stared at me and began to cry so that the 
mother had to soothe it. 

"There, there, mother won't let it hurt you," 

and threw a vindictive look at me. All this made 

me feel decidedly comfortable. I walked the entire 

length of the car and no motion was made to offer 

me a seat until I got to the further end; then an old 

gentleman moved to make room for me. 

' ' Did you see the article in the Tribune about the 
10 



146 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



night the Marshal and Mrs. Booth held a meeting 
in Englewoodf he asked. 

"The Tribune?" staring at him questioningly. 

"Yes; a Chicago paper, you know." 

"Oh! No, I didn't see it. I never read the papers, 
except the War Cry. They are all wicked." 

" Well, this article made fun of you. You see 
the reporter told all the little things that no one 
else noticed. I guess it was correct, but you know 
how they can make things sound." 

But I disclaimed all knowledge of newspapers 
and their wicked methods of writing things up. 

" Well, I guess you do do queer things, anyhow," 
he remarked, as he strolled off onto the platform. 
His place was immediately taken by an old lady, 
the visible portions of whose coiffure consisted of 
six nervous gray curls laid on each side of her head 
like lady fingers in a pudding- dish. I have always 
felt a vast respect for a generation which could pro- 
duce such a remarkable style of head-dress. 

"What do you wear this outlandish costume 
for?" she asked abruptly, without a preliminary 
compliment to the weather. 

"For the glory of G-od!" I replied, with appro- 
priate solemnity. But the noise of the train pre- 
cluded the idea of private conversation. 

" Huh?" she asked. 

" For the glory of God!" I screamed. 

"Oh, yes, to be sure." A dozen passengers had 
turned to listen to us, and I thought: "My gullible 
audience, you shall have all you want and shall 
think you have got your money's worth." 

"Do you think it glorifies Him?" she asked next. 



SALVATION ARMY. 



147 



' ' What does the costume mean anyhow? I never 
happened to see one before." 

"It's the Salvation Army uniform." 

"Oh! What do you do?" 

" Save souls, praise God!" I said fervently. That 
woman' s ignorance was only equaled by her thirst 
for knowledge. 

"Yes," meditatively. "I've heard of you. You 
go howling around the streets at night like crazy 
people." The description was so accurate that I 
only smiled spasmodically. 

" Queer how many varieties of fools there are in 
the world," remarked a fat man in front of me, 
apropos of nothing. My companion was looking at 
me, reflectively. 

" What do you live on?" she asked at last. 

" Whatever the Lord provides." 

"Oh, yes;" and then after a moment she added: 
"Uh, huh, poor things." She got up and returned 
to her own seat by the side of a lady. Everybody 
else kept within arm's length of me. The conductor 
eyed me cynically and examined my ticket sus- 
piciously. I got off the train at the Yan Buren 
street station unassisted and walked the whole 
length of it unmolested. No cabman disturbed my 
meditations by offers of his services. I was only ■ 
gazed at, guyed, and avoided. With this uniform 
on and provided with a few stock phrases a girl 
could go from Europe to San Francisco as safely as 
if she were a man,. 

I strolled out on Yan Buren street in search of a 
place to get my breakfast, but all the little dens 
down that way were so uninviting that I passed 



148 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



them by. Should I go into an obscure place and 
get a poor breakfast, or "take arms," etc., and 
brave all by going to a good restaurant ? 

My hunger conquered. The greater of the two 
evils was to go hungry. I walked up La Salle street 
leisurely to Madison. The men coming down town 
to business took their cigars out of their mouths to 
stare at me. One country fellow stood still with 
his mouth open and his hands in his pockets, and 
shop-girls stopped chewing gum to laugh. It all 
disturbed me no more than a May zephyr would ruf- 
fle the placid lake. I went into Burke's European 
Hotel. No obsequious attendant flew to the door ; 
no waiter risked his equilibrium on the marble floor 
in my behalf. Two white-aproned servants who 
saw me stood still and stared. At least fifty guests 
were present, and they dropped their knives and 
forks and giggled and whispered, and I wished I 
had gone to some quieter place. 

At last, after I had stood a target for all these 
bull's-eye shots for several minutes a waiter came 
forward and showed me to a chair. He was red- 
headed, freckled, and awkward, but I will maintain 
with my dying breath that he was a gentleman. It 
was with difficulty that I refrained from blessing 
him. A steak was ordered. 

"Will you have it rare ?" 

"Yes; have it washed in the blood — yes, rare, 
please," I hastened to correct. 

I had no morning paper to hide myself behind, 
and had to find internal resources of amusement 
until a beef could be put through the stock-yard mill, 
delivered to this establishment, and prepared. This 



SALVATION ARMY. 



149 



is a way I have discovered to account for its taking 
jnst fifty-five minutes for a modern restaurant to 
persuade a small section of a cow to "grin at a grid- 
iron." The first half -hour I studied the wall orna- 
ments and table decorations ; then a chorus — one of 
Clara's favorites — flashed into my mind : 

"Oh, you must be a lover of the Lord, 
Or you can't go to heaven when you die." 

That thing sang itself again and again. When 
my breakfast came in all eyes were on me. Well, 
they should see I had the courage of my convictions. 
I meekly bowed my head and said a grace ; then I 
tackled that rare, rare steak, unmindful of the in- 
terest in me. After a leisurely breakfast I departed 
to beard my Major in his den. 

The staring, guying, and my own premonitory 
shivers on encountering a new set of people become 
no longer worthy of record. Occasionally, however, 
there was a startling variation in the sentiments 
with which I inspired people, and in their methods 
of expressing their feelings toward me. 

As I went out Milwaukee avenue that day the car 
was crowded. I secured a seat, but many who got 
on after me had to stand up. When a fashionable 
lady entered the car with a little girl, I offered to 
take the child on my lap, but the mother jerked her 
back, anything but gently. 

"Come here, Dottie. Don't you go near her," 
she snapped. 

My face burned with indignation. Some of the 
occupants of the car looked at the woman disap- 
provingly, but the most of them were simply curi- 
ous about the effect it would have on me. I felt 



150 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



like a social leper, and wondered if I should ever 
grow used to crying " unclean." Captain Bertha 
was right — that uniform was a decided "cross." 

Some laborers were laying pipe on Armitage 
avenue. 

"Ah there, Salvation!" called out one. 

Another threw a clod at me playfully, and I, re- 
membering the proverb concerning the "soft an- 
swer," turned and said, "May the Lord bless you !" 
They stopped yelling from pure astonishment. 

But I was so weary and buffeted about by adverse 
winds that the shelter of the Major's house was 
gladly welcomed. 



CHAPTER XII. 

It may have been a coincidence, but the Major was 
again in his shirt sleeves. 

" God bless you," he said. " I am so glad to see 
you in your uniform. I was afraid you would give 
it up." 

" Oh, no. I will never give it up," and then I re- 
counted, rather hysterically, the events of the morn- 
ing." 

"Poor child. You will get used to all that. But 
you are very brave." 

" Captain Leyh told me it would be better for me 
to go to the Training Home in New York, and I 
should like it explained. Is it a theological semi- 
nary?" The Major laughed. 

"No; it's a place where they train you in the work 



SALVATION ARMY. 



151 



of the Army. They teach everyone who enters, men 
and women, how to wash, scrub, cook, and live eco- 
nomically; then how to conduct meetings, to sing, pay 
visits, and in the work of the various bands. The 
Rescue Band is for reclaiming of fallen women. Be- 
sides this are the Gutter, Garret, and Cellar Bri- 
gades. Those in authority might think you fitted to 
work in any of these ways. You stay about three 
months, and they assign you to any field they think 
you best fitted for. It may be India or Japan, or 
they may keep you in one of the Training Homes to 
train others. 

' ' Is there no religious instruction V ' I could read- 
ily imagine how a person could be devout and yet 
profoundly ignorant of the tenets of his belief. The 
Major looked surprised. 

"Just that you are expected to read the Bible 
a good deal." 

" But what expense is there ?" 

44 You have to pay your own way there, and pro- 
vide a uniform for yourself. I think it would be a 
good thing for you, you learn so fully just what 
you have to do, while there, in any field you may be 
placed afterward. You have to fill out a blank the 
same as the form of application for appointment as 
an officer. Here is one. Study it carefully, and if 
you can comply with all the conditions, fill in the 
answers, and I will send it to Marshal Booth. Then, 
when they are ready for you, they will send for 
you." 

I took up that blank reverently. It was a double 
sheet of strawberry-ice -cream colored paper, and 
contained just sixty-three questions. The Major 



152 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



began to write while I studied that remarkable docu- 
ment. This is the way it ran: 

Form of Application for Appointment as an Officer of 
Salvation Army. 

Date of application. 
Name. Address. 

1. What was your age last birthday ? 

2. What is your height ? 

3. Do you enjoy good health ? 

4. Have you ever had any serious illness ? If so, 
what? 

5. Are you free from bodily defect or disease ? 

6. Have you ever had fits of any kind? If so, 
what kind % 

7. Are you in debt ? If so, how much, and why ? 

8. What is your occupation ? 

9. How long have you been in your present situ- 
ation ? 

10. What wages do you receive ? 

11. When and where were you converted ? 

. 12. How long have you been an officer of the Sal- 
vation Army? 

13. To what corps do you belong ? 

14. Have you ever been a member of any other 
religious society? If so, which? 

15. Have you ever been a backslider ? If so, how 
long? 

16. Did you ever use intoxicating drink ? If so, 
how long is it since you entirely gave up its use ? 

17. Did you ever use tobacco or snuff ? If so, how 
long since you gave up using either ? 



SALVATION ARMY. 



153 



18. Can yon play any musical instrument % If so, 
what, and have you got one ? 

19. Can you raise tunes ? 

20. Can you read out hymns at. first sight ? 

21. Can you write ? 

22. Is this form filled up by you ? 

23. Have you read the orders and regulations of 
the Army? 

24. Do you pledge yourself to study and carry out, 
and to endeavor to train others to carry out, these 
orders ? N. B. — If you have not got a copy of the 
" Rules and Regulations," and "All About the Sal- 
vation Army," get them from your captain at once. 

25. Do you intend to live and die in the Salvation 
Army? 

26. Would you be willing to go abroad if required % 

27. Can you speak any other language but Eng- 
lish ? If so, which ? 

28. Do you pledge yourself to spend not less than 
nine hours a day in the active service of the Army, 
of which not less than three hours of every week day 
shall be spent in visitation ? 

29. Do you pledge yourself to keep a daily record 
of how your days are spent, on forms supplied to 
you for that purpose, if required ? 

30. Do you agree to wear the uniform, and to 
dress in every way in accordance with the directions 
from headquarters ? 

31. Can you provide your own uniform before 
entering the service? 

32. Have you read, and do you believe, the doc- 
trines printed on the other side? 

33. Do you pledge yourself never to receive any 



154 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



sum in the form of pay beyond the amount of allow- 
ance granted under the scale which follows % 

34. Have you read the rule as to presents and 
testimonials, and do you engage to carry it out % 

35. So far as you know is the doctors certificate 
which you now return a full and correct statement ? 

36. How long notice do you require should we 
want you ? 

37. Have you ever been in the Army as an officer % 

38. Does anybody depend on you for support ? If 
so, to what extent % 

39. Do you perfectly understand that no salary or 
allowance is guaranteed to you, and that you will 
have no claim against the Salvation Army, or against 
anyone connected therewith, on account of salary 
or allowances not received by you \ 

40. For reference give us the address of the fol- 
lowing: 1. An officer. 2. The private who has 
known you in the Army longest. 3. A firm or em- 
ployer who can speak of your character as a servant 
longest. 4. A landlord or neighbor who has known 
you longest since your conversion, and can speak of 
your life and character at home. 

Single men and women must also answer the fol- 
loiving questions: 

1. Are you courting? 

2. If so, whom ? 

3. Do you understand that you may not be allowed 
to marry until two years after your appointment as 
an officer ? 

4. If you are not courting, do you pledge yourself 



Saltation army. 



155 



to abstain from anything of the kind for at least 
twelve months after your appointment as an officer \ 

5. Do you pledge yourself not to carry on court- 
ship with anyone at the station to which you are at 
the time appointed ? 

6. Do you pledge yourself never to commence, or 
to allow to commence, or to break off anything of 
the sort, without first informing the commissioner 
of your intention to do so % 

7. Do you pledge yourself never to marry anyone, 
marriage with whom would take you out of the 
Army altogether ? 

8. Are you willing to come to the Training Home 
that we may see whether you have the necessary 
goodness and ability for an officer in the Salvation 
Army, fully understanding that if we do not think 
you have you will have to return home again ? 

9. Will you pay your traveling expenses to the 
Home if we decide to receive you in the Training 
Home ? 

10. How much can you pay for your maintenance 
while in the Training Home % 

Married men must answer the following questions: 

1. How long have you been married ? 

2. Is your wife converted ? 

3. Have you any children ? If so, state the num- 
ber and their ages. 

4. Are all the members of your family free from 
bodily defect and disease ? 

5. Does your wife engage to wear the uniform ? 

6. Does she take part in the work of the Army % 
If so, what % 



156 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



7. Does she wish you to become an officer, or is 
she only willing you should be one ? 

8. Has she also favored your going to the meet- 
ings \ Or complained of your going too much % 

9. If she objects to your becoming an officer, 
what is^her reason for doing so \ 

10. Have you read to her the questions and 
answers on this form ? 

Declaration. 

I hereby declare that I will never, on any consid- 
eration, do anything calculated to injure the Salva- 
tion Army, and especially that I will never, without 
having first obtained the consent of the Commis- 
sioner, take any part in opening any place for re- 
ligious services, or in carrying on services in any 
place within three miles of any then existing station 
of the Army, under penalty of forfeiting $250 to the 
Commissioner for the benefit of the Army if I 
should in any way prove unfaithful to this solemn 
pledge. 

I pledge myself to make the true records, daily, 
on the forms supplied to me, of what I do, and to 
confess, as far as I am concerned, and to report as 
far as I may see in others, any neglect or variations 
from the orders or directions of the Commissioner. 

I fully understand that he does not undertake to 
employ or retain in the service of the Army anyone 
who does not appear to him to be fitted for the 
work, or faithful and successful in it, and I solemnly 
pledge myself quietly to leave any station to which 
I may be sent, without making any attempt to dis- 
turb or annoy the Army in any way, should the Com- 
missioner desire me to do so. And I hereby discharge 



SALVATION AEMY. 



157 



the Army and the Commissioner from all liability, 
and pledge myself to make no claim on account of 
any situation, property, or interest I may give up 
in order to secure an engagement in the Army. 

I hereby declare that the foregoing answers appear 
to me fully to express the truth, and that I know of 
no other facts which would prevent my engagement 
by the Commissioner if they were known to him. 

Candidate signs here 

If married, wife' s signature 

To Candidates. 

All candidates are expected to fill up and sign 
this form if they can write at all. 

You are expected to have read the pamphlet en- 
titled "All about the Salvation Army," before you 
make this application. 

Making this application does not imply that we 
can receive you as an officer, and you are therefore 
not to leave your home, or give notice to leave your 
situation, until you hear again from us. 

If you are appointed as an officer, or received into 
either of the Training Homes, and it is afterward 
discovered that any of the questions in this form 
have not been truthfully answered you will be in- 
stantly dismissed. 

If you do not understand any question in this 
form, or if you do not agree to any of the require- 
ments stated upon it, return it to headquarters and 
say so in a straightforward manner. 

Make your application for this appointment a 
matter of earnest prayer, as it is the most important 
step you have taken since your conversion. 

By Order of the Commissioner. 



158 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



Presents and Testimonials. 

Officers are expected to refuse utterly, and to pre- 
vent, if possible, even the proposal of, any present or 
testimonial to them. Of course an officer who is 
receiving no salary, or only part salary, may accept 
food or other gifts such as are needed to meet his 
wants, but it is dishonorable for anyone who is receiv- 
ing a salary to accept gifts of food also. 

The Doctrines of the Salvation Army. 

The principal doctrines taught in the Army are as 
follows: 

1. We believe that the Scriptures, Old and New 
Testament, were given by inspiration of God, and 
that they only constitute the divine rule of Christian 
faith and practice. 

2. We believe there is only one God, who is in- 
finitely perfect, the Creator, Preserver, and Governor 
of all things. 

3. We believe that there are three persons in the 
Godhead — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost 
— undivided in essence, co-equal in power and glory, 
and the only proper object of religious worship. 

4. We believe that in the person of Jesus Christ 
the divine and human natures are united, so that He 
is truly and properly God, and truly and properly 
man. 

5. We believe that our first parents were created 
in a state of innocence, but by their disobedience 
they lost their purity and happiness; and that, in 
consequence of their fall, all men have become sin- 
ners, totally depraved, and as such are justly ex- 
posed to the wrath of God. 



SALVATION ARMY. 



159 



o. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has, by 
His suffering and death, made an atonement for the 
whole world, so that whosoever will may be 
saved. 

7. We believe that repentance toward God, faith 
in our Lord Jesus Christ, and regeneration by the 
Holy Spirit are necessary to salvation. 

8. We believe that we are justified by grace, 
through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and that he 
that believeth hath the witness in himself. 

9. We believe that the Scriptures teach that not 
only does continuance in the favor of God depend 
upon continued faith in and obedience to Christ, but 
that it is possible for those who have been truly 
converted to fall away and be eternally lost. 

10. We believe that it is the privilege of all be- 
lievers to be " wholly sanctified," and that " their 
whole spirit and body and soul" may " be preserved 
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
That is to say, we believe that after conversion there 
remains in the heart of the believer inclination to 
evil or roots of bitterness which, unless overpowered 
by divine grace, j^oduce actual sin; but that these 
evil tendencies can be entirely taken away by the 
Spirit of God, and the whole heart, thus cleansed 
from everything contrary to the will of God, or en- 
tirely sanctified, will then produce the fruits of the 
Spirit only. And we believe that persons thus en- 
tirely sanctified may, by the power of God, be kept 
unblamable and unreprovable before Him. 

11. We believe in the immortality of the soul, in 
the resurrection of the body, in the general judg- 
ment at the end of the world, in the eternal happi- 



160 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



ness of the righteous, and in the everlasting punish- 
ment of the wicked. 

When I had got through this document I was 
absolutely dumbfounded by the picture it presented 
of complete renunciation of self, hopes, plans, am- 
bitions, prosperity, all things of this life coveted of 
men. The Trappist monks give up scarcely less, 
because while immolated it is with the reverence of 
the world. With these Salvationists there is pov- 
erty perpetually enjoined, scorn, ridicule, a crushing 
of every part of the nature but the religious, and what 
seems a heartless abandonment of their bodily wel- 
fare by those with whom they serve. There is 
nothing for them but isolation in God. The magni- 
tude of it was overwhelming. 

"Well?" inquired the Major. "You see how 
much you have to give up. It is not a simple mat- 
ter. It needs to be prayed over." 

" I shall have to think about it. It takes a great 
deal of the grace of God." 

The Major went over the form with me and 
straightened out the knotty points. 

' < Had I ever had fits % If so, what kind V ' I had 
to think a moment. You can't expect a person to 
answer a question like that instantly. It was not 
impossible that I might have one then and con- 
tradict any rash statement I might make. 

"Can you raise tunes?" I thought of the cadet 
who can raise people's hair with tunes and thought 
it probable I could do that much. 

But "Can you write?" made me wonder how 
many of their applicants can not write. Afterward 
I found one regularly commissioned officer who 



SALVATION ARMY. 



161 



could not. The question itself was a dead give 
away. 

"What shall I do about the references? The 
neighbors wouldn' t say anything for me when they 
know mamma opposes my going away from home." 

" I will answer for you and your cousin — that will 
do." He would answer for me ! Well, next ! But 
I had passed Scylla to encounter Charybdis. 

' ' Are you courting \ If so, who?" Great Caesar ! 
what did the man take me for. It wasn't I who 
was doing it. I did not feel like pledging myself to 
marry a Salvationist, either, when I thought of the 
specimens I had seen. There was Charlie Lanyon, 
who did everything by the sweat of his brow, the 
sick soldier, the bow-legged one, the one with the 
nasal catarrh, Captain Dick, and Trotter. " Happy 
Harry 1 ' was the only eligible one I had seen, and as it 
would be two years before I could set my cap for any 
one openly, such a very large fish as i ' Happy Harry' ' 
would be landed in some other net. I had rather 
promise not to marry at all. Really, under the cir- 
cumstances, matrimony would have no inducements 
for me. 

We read that paper clear through, and my awe in- 
creased. I folded it carefully and put it away. The 
Major gave me a letter of introduction to Cadet 
Wheeler, in charge of Number 8, and a package of 
pins and badges for Captain Leyh. Then he called 
Mrs. Evans. That gentle lady gazed on me with 
strong emotion and kissed me. We had a prayer, 
an all-hands-round blessing and one of their cho- 
ruses, of which they have many that are beautiful 

and impressive. This one they sang now was a fa- 
11 



162 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



vorite of Clara's, and when sung in her heavy con- 
tralto voice brought many a giddy girl to a serious 
consideration of the Army. 

" I will follow Thee, rny Saviour ; 
Thou did'st shed Thy blood for me, 
And tho' all men should forsake Thee, 
By Thy grace I'll follow Thee." 

Then I departed to find Cadet Wheeler, to whose 
care Jessie and I were to be consigned, but my ad- 
ventures must wait on Jessie's. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

" I am washed in the blood, 
In the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb. 

My soul is spotless, 'tis as white as snow, 
I am washed in the blood of the Lamb," 

Clara was singing at the top of her voice when I 
climbed the crazy stair on returning from my little 
pleasure jaunt to the Majors. She was rocking as 
hard as she could rock, with her feet rather too ele- 
vated for ladylike grace, but smiling out of her big, 
bright eyes. She went right on with her singing, even 
after she saw me, only she switched off onto a new 
tune : 

" Perfect peace I do enjoy — 
Perfect peace I do enjoy — 
And the smiling of my Savior 
Makes a glory in my soul." 

' - Oh, Birdie, Birdie, Birdie ! I thought somebody 
had gobbled you up, you sweet thing!'' "Where- 
upon Clara proceeded to gobble up a small part of 



SALVATION AEMY. 163 

me. From the kitchen the cadet's dulcet voice pro- 
ceeded with a dirge-like vivacity : 
" I'm saved, I am — 
I'm glad, I am— 
I am washed in Jesus' blood. 
I'm saved, I am — 
I know I am — 
And the Lord will lead His children home." 

The cadet always chose a tune that would go with 
a rule and square, angular time-keeping, which was 
eminently cheerful. Bertha looked up and smiled, 
and Clara pulled me down in her lap. The house 
was full of company and Salvation slush was fairly 
slopping over. Ida was there, the sick boy, Amy, 
and a German woman with her arms folded in a 
shawl. They filled the little parlor to overflowing. 
Jessie was lying on the lounge, looking as fragile as 
a Dresden china cup. 

"What have you been doing to youself?" I de- 
manded. 

" Nothing, only selling the War Cry in the out- 
posts of perdition," she whispered. 

"Selfish thing! You always take all the best of 
everything." 

"You could have had that and welcome," she 
replied, without a glimmer of a smile. 

Be it understood that the War Cry so often re- 
ferred to in these pages, as announced in its artistic 
head, is ' 1 the only official gazette of the Salvation 
Army in America," and is published weekly by 
Ballington Booth, at 111 K-eade St., New York City, 
at the uniform price of 5 cents per copy. < The 
issue of September 29 was No. 365, so that it is now 
in the eighth year of its existence. 



164 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



It is a neat sixteen-page sheet. The first page 
nsnally contains a biographical sketch of a prom- 
inent officer, with appropriate cuts. Then follows 
reports from various divisions detailing wonderful 
conversions. General Booth had contributed a letter 
to this issue urging a week of prayer and self-denial, 
the money saved to go toward carrying the good 
news afar. Obituary notices were full; weddings 
were chronicled; and there were columns of para- 
graphs that were worthy of Sam Jones as to point 
and brevity. One department contained news from 
* abroad by cable; another, letters from converts. And 
then came the War Cry " thermometer " by which 
the ' ' blood and fire ' ' heat of different corps were 
tested by the number of the War Cry sold each week. 
This indicates the entire circulation, as the paper is 
handled only by the officers of the corps. 

At the head stands Minneapolis Corps 1, and 
Fall River, Mass., selling 400 copies each. Den- 
ver, Colo., and St. Paul dispose of 350 each. A 
list of cities follows, the number of papers sold 
decreasing in number, no corps being in the list un- 
less selling 100. In Chicago probably 1,000 copies 
are sold weekly by the eight corps, so the circula- 
tion of the War Cry runs easily into the thousands. 
On the last page stands a column of original songs 
sung by inspired Salvationists. Altogether it is an 
admirably edited sheet and fully answers the pur- 
pose for which it was created. There is not a line 
of advertisement in it except of their own wares and 
announcements. A price list of all things furnished 
at the headquarters storeroom is given. Bonnets 
ranged from two to five dollars, already trimmed. 



SALVATIOK ARMY. 



165 



Complete uniforms for both men and women could 
be obtained, jerseys, guernseys, caps, badges, tri- 
color ribbons, pins, tambourines, accordions, song 
books and cartridges, all at astonishingly low prices. 

Then a column list of Salvation Army publica- 
tions followed, and embraced six books by General 
Booth. 

Rules and Regulations . 

Doctrines and Discipline. 

The Training of Children. 

Salvation Soldiery. 

The Soldier's Guide. 

Doctrines of the Army. 

Mrs. Booth is the authoress of: 

Popular Christianity. 

Aggressive Christianity. 

Life and Death. 

Godliness. 

Practical Religion. 

Church and State in relation to the Salvation 
Army. 

Commissioner Railton is the next and most prom- 
inent of their writers, and has written: 

Twenty-one Years in the Salvation Army. 

Heathen England and the Salvation Army. 

The Salvation Navy (Life of Capt. John Allen). 

Captain Ted (Life of Capt. Edward Irons). 

Some thirty miscellaneous books and pamphlets 
follow, and seven song books. All these are issued 
directly from the Army publishing house in London. 

Of the newspapers and journals there exist the 
War Cry (American, English, Canadian, and Cal- 
ifornian), the En Avant of France, Strids Bopet of 



166 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



Sweden, Der Kriegsruf of German- Switzerland, Der 
Heilsruf of Germany, and All the World, a monthly 
magazine of forty-eight pages. The pen seems to 
have been as valiantly nsed as the sword, and the 
amount of Salvation literature put into circulation 
is truly amazing, considering the length of time the 
Army has been in existence. But the War Cry ! 
If nothing else would prove the zeal of the officers of 
the Salvation Army the fact of their undertaking to 
sell so many copies of this official gazette under the 
most trying circumstances would surely do it. 

A great many corps have a War Cry night when 
the people who attend the meetings are expected to 
invest in a paper at the door. At Englewood one of 
the soldiers went through the audience regularly 
every night disposing of as many as possible. When 
the latest edition arrives, if any number of the week 
before remain unsold by these methods, the officers 
are required to sell them on the streets. ~No i)rofit 
is made by handling them, every one ordered has to 
be paid for whether sold or not, and all the profits go 
into the Army fund, which is used in perfecting or 
extending all branches of the Army work. In sell- 
ing the paper the officers are expected to go into 
places of business, pref erably into saloons and places 
of public resort. 

It was this work which Jessie and the cadet had 
been engaged in while I was interviewing the Major. 
Clara had refused to go, saying it was Bertha' s own 
fault they had not all been sold in the meetings ; she 
didn' t propose to go. She had sold them last week, 
anyhow, and it was someone' s else turn, so Jessie was 
detailed to go with the cadet. Millie shut her teeth 



SALVATION ARMY. 



167 



liard and prayed for help on this expedition, and 
more faith. She is so singularly inelastic, and rnbs 
against people' s prejudices with an unconsciousness 
and persistency that falls just short of the sublime. 

Perhaps some of the experiences of that morning 
were due to this quality. 

They walked up Went worth avenue to Sixty- 
third street and across to State, where they encount- 
ered two men with a can of beer between them. 
" Lord help us," said Millie, sotto voce — then aloud : 
4 4 Do you want a War Cryf ' 

" You jiz wait a minute, m' dear," said one of the 
men, giving her a quizzical leer, and lifted the beer 
to his lips. Millie waited patiently, while Jessie 
stepped back. Presently the other man said : 

"Yes, I'll take one." 

"They are five cents apiece." 

"Oh ! I thought you were giving them away. I 
haven't any money to spend on trash." 

" Will you read it if I will give you one V 9 

" Oh, yes ; of course I will. Why not V 9 he said, 
with an embarrassed laugh, and scratching his head. 
She gave him one, and said : 

"God bless you. May you come to love the War 
Cry better than you do beer." The two men went 
out, with a laugh, and an idle wind presently brought 
back a dust-stained copy of War Cry, which was to 
have rivaled beer in the affections of a man. 

"I should think that would discourage you," said 
Jessie. 

" You should pray for more faith. God help us," 
she added, as they reached a saloon and entered after 
a moment's pause. A dozen men were standing 



±68 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



about the bar, but no one would buy. It happened 
to be the first place of the kind Jessie had ever been 
in, and she glanced about curiously at the men, who 
all had just about enough, to make them happy and 
good-natured. One of them winked at Millie in a 
jocose manner, and she took this as a sign that he 
was in a frame of mind to be approached, and acted 
accordingly. 

" Will you buy a War Cry?" she asked, sweetly. 

" A War Cry isn't what I am particularly hank- 
ering after when better things are to be had," he said, 
and winked at her again slowly and deliberately. 
Jessie wanted to knock him down, but Millie was 
too obtuse to catch, his meaning, or too saintly, for 
she smiled on him and blessed him. 

When they reached the market Millie said, " You 
go in alone while I pray for your success." So 
Jessie went in and asked the man in charge to buy 
a paper. He frowned and shook his head, so Jessie 
marched out again. 

"I can't sell any." 

6 'You must pray for more faith. You must re- 
member that Christ was stoned, 1 ' which fact bore no 
particular reference to their acting like fools in an- 
other cause, in Jessie' s mind. The very air was full 
of impure thoughts, the smell of stale beer, and stale 
morals and manners. On Sixty-third street they 
stopped in a number of saloons, and all were full of 
men. The two gospel newsgirls were greeted first 
by a look of astonishment, then smiles alcoholically 
cordial, and ribald laughs. 

"Do you wp;' £*to buy a War Cryf Millie asked, 
smiling as angelically as her peculiar constitution 



SALTATION AEMY. 



169 



permitted. The impression seemed to prevail that 
Millie was there to be guyed, and the occupation 
was rendered all the more entertaining by the fact 
that she herself was not aware of it. 

" "Well, now, let's argue that ma-atter, m' dear," 
said one man, taking her by the hand affectionately. 
Several would have talked with them indefinitely, 
with all a half -drunken man s amiability, but Jessie 
refused to answer them. Millie, true to her idea of- 
a " word in season," stood a good deal of their chaf- 
fing, smiled beatifically on them and said, "God 
bless you," whether they bought or not. Jessie 
merely looked grim, said k ' Thank you ' 1 briefly, and 
pocketed the cash quite as if she had given them 
their money's worth. The worst of it was that no 
particular good seemed to come out of this exposure 
to insult, ridicule, and spiritual toleration of ribaldry 
and vice. Jessie' s heart was hot with indignation. 
She walked along wearily by the cadet's side, almost 
ready to give up, and then came the last straw. 

"Get out of here you!" yelled a saloon- 
keeper, as they entered one place. "I don't know 

what such a set want to come around to bother 

people for." Jessie looked at him, all her insulted 
womanhood in her face. The man growled some- 
thing else and buried his face in a paper, having the 
grace to feel a little ashamed. "God bless you!" 
said Millie, as they went out. Jessie sat down on 
some steps, panting with anger. 

" TYJiat do you go into such places for I You de- 
serve to be insulted," she flashed at*Millie. 

" It is not us they insult, but the. /_1 od. They will 
be damned for it. Lord, give us strength.' ' 



170 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



"If the fact of tlieir being damned for it is any 
consolation to you, it isn't to me. On the last day 
there may be an extenuating circumstance in having 
been provoked." Millie only stared. 

' ' Come on. We must sell the rest. Those who go 
into the worst places and sell the most will have the 
greatest reward." So Millie was after the boodle. 
That sort of feeling does not readily disguise itself. 
Jessie got up, too disgusted with her companion to 
care even to protest. The next man was quite will- 
ing to argue the question. 

"Now, what good will that paper do my 

family?" he asked. His question was greeted by a 
roar of laughter from a group of men who were all 
concerned about their families. Jessie retorted: 

' £ What good will that whisky you are drinking 
do your family V 

"Well, now, see here; you don't understand this 
temperance question in all its ramifications. This 
will keep one member of my family feeling mighty 

good," he replied. Jessie backed to the door, 

but Millie staid to talk with him, telling him how 
much better salvation was than whisky. 

"Oh, see here, you've got just one side of it. But 
you never tried whisky. Now, girls, if you'll drink 

with me I'll buy a paper, if I dont. What' 11 

you take V ' But still Millie did not desist. 

"No, thank you," she said sweetly. "We are 
drinking from the full fountain of salvation, whose 
waters are ever sweet." 

"It's pretty hard to beat sour mash with 

any of your new mineral waters !" he replied, with 
imperturbable good humor. 



SALVATION AKMY. 



171 



" G-od bless you !" said Millie. 

"All o. k. I got it. By-by," and he wafted them 
an airy kiss from the edge of his glass. 

4 6 1 can t read, ' ' said the next man, who was sitting 
huddled up by a saloon stove. Jessie gave him a 

paper, he read it serenely, and gave it back. " 

rot," he remarked, parenthetically. Many made 
this same excuse, and others said they had no money. 
One man who was smoking made this statement, 
and bolstered it up by saying he could get trusted 
for tobacco. 

"Well, I'll trust you for a paper," said Jessie, 
and gave him one. 

6 6 me if you am 1 1 a brick. Come back next 

week, and I'll treat you, blest if I won't." 

"I can't afford to buy one," said a bartender. 
"You get them to let me keep open Sunday, and I'll 
take all your papers, and sell 'em, too. Give one 
away with two beers. Big scheme, that. Wonder 
how we'd pull together in a business venture ?" 

Another bartender said: "You see that cash regis- 
ter % I have to use that. Every cent is registered. I 
haven't a cent of my own." 

"I don't want it," growled a morose old man, 
bluntly. 

" Oh, yes, you do. It would do you so much good. 
Maybe you'd be saved," persisted Millie. 

" you; won't you let me have an opinion of 

my own?" he cried, starting up. Millie tried to 
soothe him, but he was just drunk enough to be 
quarrelsome. In another saloon Jessie sold a paper 
to a man at the bar, and then turned to go out, but 
Millie had got into an argument. She never knew 



172 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



when it was time to quit, and as her common sense 
was not to be relied upon, Jessie walked out by her- 
self, and waited under a lamppost. 

" You mustn't give up so soon. Who knows but 
that a little seed dropped at the right moment will 
ripen for eternity — will ripen for eternity?" she re- 
peated. When Millie remembered a fine phrase she 
rolled it around her tongue. 

" Yes, and who knows if you disgust a man with 
cant but that will ripen for eternity also ? You can 
insult a man' s intelligence.' ' 

"Do you know they all believe just what we preach, 
only they won't admit it ? They are all unhappy." 

"Are they? They manage to conceal it very 
well." 

' £ Oh, they are. They know they are in the wrong. 
They really respect us, too, and look up to us be- 
cause we are sanctified." That was a very comfort- 
ing belief for Millie, and as she will probably need 
all the comfort she can extract from it, Jessie left it 
undisturbed. 

A number of men were standing around the car 
barn, but all refused to invest in a War Cry. 

"You're in a damned pretty business," said one 
man, which opinion tallied with Jessie's, but she 
replied: 

"We are selling our wares. You don't have to 
buy; but there is no necessity for your insulting us." 

"Hash, hush !" said Millie. " She's new to the 
Army, and is impatient. You must excuse her. God 
bless you. " She was very deservedly greeted with a 
roar of laughter. The men continued calling after 
them until they were out of hearing. 



SALTATION AEMT. 



178 



On Fifty-ninth street they were laughed at by 
everybody, sworn at by a few, and the oaths lacked 
even originality. Every man was wicked or vulgar 
after the same pattern. Millie sold two papers in a 
grocery near the viaduct, and Jessie entered the office 
of the Daily Sim. The young lady in charge shook 
her head, but Jessie persisted. 

"We buy papers from you. You ought to do the 
same by us." 

"I guess that's so." she said, and took a paper. 

••You should always say something about their 
souls, and bless them.'" admonished the cadet." 

"Oh. their souls be hanged!" said Jessie, reck- 
lessly. Millie looked at her. 

"You talk so queer. But. then, some of the Army 
people believe in slang to reach the low. Perhaps 
we are not all equally endowed with grace and 
faith."' 

One was sold to a shoemaker, and then the girls 
entered the bank. An old gentleman, who was prob- 
ably the cashier, asked them to wait a few moments. 

"I attended a meeting at Arcade Hall, and heard 
the Marshal and Mrs. Booth. She's a noble little 
woman." he said. He then went on to speak of the 
way in which the papers had reported the meeting, 
and of the special article in the Tribune. 

•• We heard of that." said Millie, "but we didn't 
see any of the papers. We read only the War Cry." 
The gentleman bought a paper from her. and, their 
entire stock being disposed of. the two girls went 
back home, arriving there at one o'clock. 

Jessie's soul was sick. Two hours and a half 
among drunken, cursing, brutal, ungodly men had 



174 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



completely prostrated lier. And what had been ac- 
complished \ One policeman with a sanctified club 
could have knocked more conviction of sin in the 
whole lot of them with one well-aimed blow than 
those two girls had done in an entire morning of 
gentle and idiotic submissiveness to whatever form 
their brutality chose to take. But, then, by the other 
method the War Cry would not be sold. 



CHAPTER XIY. 

' ' We are to go to No. 8, and if we come out of 
it alive I am to go on to the Training Home in New 
York," I announced from my throne on Clara's knee. 
Jessie started up from her lounge. 

"I'll go and pack the valises; anything to get 
away. I was really afraid I' d choke the cadet in her 
sleep if I got a chance," she whispered, excitedly. 
Not until afterward did she recount her experiences 
of the day as contained in the last chapter. 

" Hallejujah !" exclaimed the Captain. "Oh, you 
will be a soldier of the Lord now. I was always 
afraid something would frighten you from it." 

"The only thing that frightened me to-day was 
going into a restaurant for breakfast and being stared 
at as if I were an animal out of Lincoln Park. But 
I said grace right before everybody." 

"Praise God!" 

"Bless Jesus !" 

"Hallelujah!" 



SALVATION ARMY. 



175 



' ' I am a Christian soldier — 

One of a noisy crew; 
I shout when I am happy, 

And that I mean to do. 
Some say I am too noisy, 

I know the reason why; 
And if they felt the glory, 

They'd shout as well as I. 

I'm a soldier, 
Should you want me, 
You'll find me in the Salvation Army," 

sang Clara. Our conversation was always of the 
spasmodic variety. 

' ' If they should want you, Clara, all they would 
have to do would be to listen, and they would hear 
something drop." 

4 'Shut up. You shut up. I'll squeeze you to 
death," she responded, carrying her threat into in- 
stant execution. 

' ' I was in a restaurant once. A whole lot of us 
went with a man after there had been a hallelujah 
wedding. We said grace, and after we had finished 
we knelt and had a prayer meeting. You ought to 
have seen the people stare," said the Captain. 

"I'd like to live in a restaurant all the time," 
began Clara. 6 6 1 was in one once or twice and every- 
thing was so fine. They gave you a printed list of 
all they had, and, my ! I guess they had so many 
things you couldn't choose what you wanted. The 
fellow I was with paid fifty cents for just a little 
piece of steak, and then we had pie and coffee. But 
I guess people who live in restaurants ain't any bet- 
ter than they ought to be." 

"Well, I saw a fellow in a restaurant once," 



176 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



broke in Charlie Lanyon. " He was with a woman, 
and he wanted to rent a house. The waiter called 
me, and it jnst happened father had some rooms 
vacant, and so they moved in. Who do yon think 
they were V ' He paused a moment to give full effect 
to his denouement, while Ida, Amy, the sick soldier, 
the German woman, the cadet, and Clara hung on 
his words. "Why, it was James Aldrich Brown, 
the man who was married twenty-three times and 
never got a divorce once. That's the kind of folks 
you can pick up if you ain't careful." 

"Did you ever ! Oh, Charlie, you're the funniest 
fellow I ever saw," screamed Clara, tumbling me off 
her lap to slap that young man on the shoulder, 
hilariously. Clara's exuberance frequently slopped 
over after this manner. 

" They lived in our house about two weeks, and 
we thought they were all right until the man was 
arrested." 

" Oh, I wish I had seen him !" gushed Ida. 

" Did you talk to him about his soul? Perhaps 
he could have been saved before he went to jail if 
someone had talked to him about Jesus." The cadet 
was always on time. 

" It would have been a good thing for some really 
religious girl like you to have married him, Millie, as 
she would have had more opportunities to talk with 
him. Perhaps he would have returned to the first 
wife of his bosom and behaved himself in order to 
escape further punishment. ' ' But Millie only looked 
puzzled. She never took my little pleasantries in 
and profited by them. 

"There is just one other thing. I find I can't get 



SALVATION ARMY. 



177 



married for two years if I join the Army. On that 
I'll kick." 

' £ Oh, Birdie, let me see that form. Bertha, it' s so, 
you can' t marry for two years. This paper says so. 
I ain't going to be an officer. And you can't marry 
outside of the Army. Huh! Well, I never saw 
anybody in the Army I'd have. Oh, I didn't mean 
that," with a telling look at Charlie, but Charlie 
was looking at me just then, and missed it. 

' £ Clara, you are so giddy. To hear you talk peo- 
ple would think you didn't belong to the Army. 
Some day you'll feel different about marrying a 
soldier." 

' ' Well, they do have lovely weddings. Bertha, 
tell about that one we had at Minneapolis. 

"You should have seen it, Birdie. One of our 
captains was married in the hall. She had been in 
the Army three years, and had converted a young 
man, who also went into the Army and became a staff- 
captain. He had fallen in love with her and told 
the Major so. But before he told her a word of it 
he had to get the permission of the Commissioner. 
Then he wrote to her and they corresponded regu- 
larly and became engaged. She told me of it, and 
said that she prayed all night after she had written 
her acceptance of his love for God to make her 
worthy of this great happiness. They waited until 
her term was up at the place to which she was ap- 
pointed, and then the bridegroom came. We had 
the Army hall decorated with evergreens and Jap- 
anese lanterns and flags. Representatives from a 
dozen corps were there, and the Major and Mrs. 

Evans and " Happy Harry." Nearly two hundred 
12 



178 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



soldiers were in the procession, which inarched 
with torches, drums, and tambourines to the hall 
where there must have been three thousand visit- 
ors. We had a hallelujah meeting, with singing, 
prayer, and testimony, and then a sermon on mar- 
riage was delivered. Oh, it was solemn. At nine 
o'clock the bride and bridegroom stepped down 
from the platform. You couldn't Lave told them 
from the other soldiers; they wore their ordinary 
uniforms. It was such a beautiful service. They 
stood under flags with Army color-bearers on either 
side, and when it was over we had a knee-drill and 
jubilee meeting. Why, of course, we were all happy. 
You know Jesus was bidden to the wedding, and he 
always comes. The next night there was a grand 
supper and "farewell," and an all-night knee-drill. 
Part of the money taken in at the door was used to 
pay their traveling expenses back to his station, 
where they held a meeting the very next night. We 
have many beautiful and impressive ceremonies 
connected with the great events of life. We believe 
in expressing all our joy in praising God. Did you 
ever see anything of the kind, Birdie?" 

"I saw 'Happy Harry' dedicate a kid — oh, a 
baby — well, he called it a kid, down in Peoria. I was 
in the audience waiting for the procession, which 
was doing some extra howling on the street. All at 
once the door of Rouse's Hall burst open and 
' Happy Harry ' bounded in. 

"' Glory to God!' he shouted. 'All the sisteis 
sing.' They all sang and prayed. 

" ' Now, bring on your kid!' he said, and began to 
roll up his sleeves as if for a prize fight. ' ' 



SALVATION ARMY. 



179 



" He is always so attractive !" laughed the Captain. 
"Huh? Oh, yes! lie is always attractive/' For all 
her saintliness, Captain Bertha was decidedly off, 
aesthetically^ 

" Well, he rolled up his sleeves and pitched in. 
The cadet brought up the ' kid,' and the father and 
mother stood near. There was a stand draped in the 
Army colors, and a flag was waved above the heads 
of all. It made a striking picture with 'Happy 
Harry ' holding the baby while he prayed. 

" 'Amen!' shouted everyone. 

" 'Let' ergo!' said Harry. He gave the baby back 
and began a jubilee meeting. I never saw anyone 
get around so lively. He preached about ten min - 
utes like this: 

• What s the matter with you sinners back there? 
Any flies on yon? Bet there are. There are flies on 
pretty near everything. But I know one there ism t 
— Jesus. Everybody sing to the tune of the "Lily 
of the Valley'' 

' " There are no flies on Jesus, 
He's everything to me." ' 

' ' The audience fairly howled, and the next night 
a great number came back, thinking there would be 
more fun, but ' Happy Harry ' was gone, and it all 
fell flat again." 

" If we were all like him how grand it would be!" 
But I beg leave to differ, unless they want the Army 
to be like a circus. 

Jessie came in just then and reported the valises 
packed. Dear Jessie, she was in haste to jump 
from the frying-pan into the fire. If she had only 
known what was coming! But that dispensation 



180 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



which makes of the future a sealed book is a wise 
one. 

"Let's have a jubilee meeting now, before you 
go. There are such a lot of us, but the more the 
merrier. Let us pray." This is what actually fol- 
lowed: We all got down on our knees, the ten of 
us, in the little parlor, though the sick soldier did 
have to Lang his legs over the stair railing. Bertha 
prayed: 

"Oh, our Father, bless us, we pray Thee. Espe- 
cially bless these dear girls who are going into a new 
and untried field to labor for Thee." She never got 
any farther. Clara struck up a song: 

' ' I will follow Thee, my Savior, 

Thou hast shed Thy blood for me, 
And, though all the world forsake me, 
I will always follow Thee." 

"Oh, God! ! ! Help these hallelujah lasses to follow 
Thee ! " ( A groan. ) ' ' Help them to glory in doing Thy 
will. Let them speak words of fire, and wade 
through rivers of bl-lo-o-o-d to thy feet!" (Amen) 
(Hallelujah) prayed Clara. 

" When first I saw the Army 
As it came into our town, 
It's appearance didn't please me, 
But I followed them around," 

sang the cadet after her boot-sole-stirring manner. 
"Dear Lord, these girls didn't love the Army when 
they first came. They were not stuck on it. But 
now Thy grace has made it easier for them. Go 
with them, we pray Thee, and guide their footsteps 
to the end." (Yes, Jesus!) 

"Now, Dick, you pray." So Dick prayed, and 



SALVATION ARMY. 



181 



Charlie, and then ' ' Dear Birdie, pray for yourself — 
just a little word." For the life of me I could think 
of only one thing to say, and that was a prayer from 
the Buddhist ritual, or whatever they call it, but it 
served the purpose: 

"Oh God, Thou who art omnipotent, pity one 
whose authority is so brief." 

"Hallelujah!" 

They were all up about me. "Oh, you do pray 
so beautifully. You see what it is to have an educa- 
cation," cried dear Bertha. 

' ' Where are you going?' ' asked Amy. 

" To No. 8, on State street." 

" JSTo. 8 ?" asked Dick. " I was down there once, 
and it's hell let loose." 

"Have courage! Jesus will surely help you. The 
foes of the Lord are many but they will never pre- 
vail," said the Captain. " Remember He was cruci- 
fied. There are those who would crucify Him now 
should He return." 

' c You must have more faith " 

' ' Now, Millie, ' ' laughed Clara. ' ' Save your word 
for another season." 

" She'll need it the next time she sells War Crys" 
remarked Jessie, grimly. We were then kissed all 
around by the girls, and Dick said, sheepishly: 

"I'll come to see you some time to find out how 
you get along." 

" You cant," I answered severely. His budding 
hopes had to be sat down on. "I'm going to be an 
officer and can't have a beau for two years." 

"I didn't mean that way," he stammered, con- 
fused by a public rebuke. 



182 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



' ' Yes, you did, and you' 11 lia ve to give it up. ' 1 We 
were kissed again all around. 

" Good- by. Oh, Bertie I want your picture." 
"Wait till I have it taken in a uniform." 
" All right, good by. Come out and see us." 
u All right, good by." 
" God bless you!" 

We shut the door with a bang and found ourselves 
free. We sat down a moment on the steps, looking 
miserably into each other s eyes. ' ' God bless you !" 
said Jessie, but I think it was mechanical, a spas- 
modic contraction of the brain, on the same principle 
that a frog kicks all over a frying pan. We had a 
brief respite and then went on and on — got clear 
away from Engiewood and rode on an ordinary 
Went worth avenue horse car deliberately into " Hell 
let loose." 



CHAPTER XV. 

That graphic epithet was very fully justified by 
the events which followed. I am glad there is hope 
for the blackslider, for at the end of four days there 
were just two of us who fell from grace and into dis- 
grace by going back on the Army. But whatever 
other plea I may urge hereafter for blacksliding I 
can not say that I went to Chicago Corps No. 8 with 
my eyes shut. 

The Major had sent us to Engiewood first, saying 
distinctly that it presented the very best phase of 
Army work. Nowhere else would we find it so good. 



SALVATION ARMY. 



188 



We were to see all tlie work there and become used to 
it, and then afterward we conld meet Satan in a hand- 
to-hand fight. I am afraid we did not feel sufficiently 
grateful for his consideration until afterward, when 
we had a chance to compare. Englewood was unique 
enough to keep our mouths and eyes open for a week 
and our hearts in our mouths, dreading the next 
antic we would be expected to participate in. Our 
crowded quarters had not been distinctly agreeable ; 
there was no place big enough or private enough 
to indulge in a bath, and meals were irregular and 
uncertain in quality, so that I wondered if my pow- 
ers of digestion would hold out. 

Afterward I was forced to admit that the Major 
was more than kind, that Englewood was Elysium 
and the cadet an archangel. He had now given me 
distinctly to understand that in the fight at No. 8 
Satan was emphatically on top. Then Dick had 
made a very uncompromising statement concerning 
the joys that would await us. Still we went. I not 
only went, but made a very decided effort to accom- 
plish the going. But even now, as I write, my heart 
grows faint and my brain recoils from the necessity 
for recalling and recording the events of four awful 
days fairly blurred into my memory. 

I wish to state emphatically that No. 8 did not 
suffer by comparison with Englewood. If any- 
thing, our experiences there rather helped us to go 
through all the rest of it. We were used to the 
routine ; to public curiosity and comment ; we knew 
the manner of life in detail, the kneelings down and 
risings up, the cant phraseology, the things expected 
of us, the one unending subject of observation, med- 



184 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



itation, and conversation. So familiar were all these 
that the observance of them was merely mechanical 
and monotonons. We did them, like the rest, as a 
matter of habit. If we had gone to No. 8 first I 
do verily believe we should not have come out 
alive and with our seven senses still about us. But 
what was suffered there was not from " remember- 
ing happier things," because No. 8 was one of 
those places and experiences not to be compared with 
anything in heaven above, the earth beneatb, or the 
waters under the earth. It was chaos chained and 
tied down to one sj>ot. It was literally 4 ' Hell let 
loose " and confined again on earth. 

"Ah, they need the Army down there!" the 
Major had said feelingly. "The corps has been 
opened only about two months and is the latest one 
to be started in Chicago. There is work there for 
stout hearts and steady brains." 

I very naturally expected to find an attempt to 
supply this dire need at No. S, to find that the sol- 
diers of the Lord were firing volley after volley of 
faith and good works into the enemy's strongholds. 
I thought to hear of them in the highways and by- 
ways and along the hedges and ditches, and that the 
pathway to them would be over the bodies of prison- 
ers and the slain. And this is what I did find. 

The Major had prepared me a letter of introduc- 
tion, which was written on the official paper with a 
letter head in red ink gotten up in fine style, announc- 
ing that the interesting document was from the 
divisional headquarters of the Salvation Army, 452 
Armitage avenue, and that Major Evans was the 
divisional officer in command. He had written : 



SALVATION ARMY. 



185 



"Cadet Wheeler, Chicago Corps, No. S. 

" Dear Sister in the Lord : This will introduce 
to you Miss Bertha and Miss Jessie Mayo, two new 
converts, who will live with you a few days if you 
can make room for them. 

"May the Lord abundantly bless you. 

"Yours for Christ and the Army, 

"Major Evans." 

The address on this letter directed me to 530 
Thirty-first street as the private residence of the 
officers of No. 8. Where that number should have 
been was a vacant lot so large and lonesome that I 
wondered if it had strayed in from some Western 
town. I inquired at 520, and a round-eyed boy who 
opened the door stared at me. 

' ' I never seen ' em, no' m, ' ' he answered. ' ' What 
do they look like ?" 

"Well, they look like me. Did you ever see a 
dress like this before ?" 

"No'm." He gave me a broad grin and shut the 
door. 

I went across the railroad tracks to a butcher shop. 

"Eh % Der aint any girls like you down here, "said 
a German woman in charge. " Gott im Himmel, vill 
der wimmins go to der var, too % Vat become of us 
all \ I tell Hans if dere pe a var he go. I cut up a 
beef by myself. If de wimmins go, too, who takes 
care mit der kinder V ' 

" Oh, we just tight Satan!' ' I explained. 

"Uh, huh! Yell, he's a bad man. I guess you 
have to fight him hard, mebbe. I ask you to 
excuse me for not knowing about dem girls. If dey 
comes for meat I know pretty quick." Such cour- 



186 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



tesy was rare, and I excused her with all my heart. 
I inquired at a drug store, a grocery, a coal office, 
and at the railroad station. All to no purpose. No 
one had seen or heard of those girls. An old man 
whom I met, said : 

" Grod bless you, my dear. I'm glad to see some- 
body in this Grod -forsaken region who is openly on 
the Lord's side." 

£ ' God bless you. Have you seen the girls who are 
stationed here V ' 

' ' I have seen no one of the Army down here but 
you. I used to go to No. 1, on Chicago avenue. 
That is how I know the uniform." Alas, the offi- 
cers of No. 8 had effectually hidden their light 
under a half-bushel. I gave up the search in des- 
pair and was walking slowly to the Clark street 
railway station to take a return train to Englewood 
when I heard an unearthly and unintelligible yell 
behind me. There came a blue-uniformed figure 
careening after me. If you ever saw a Texas steer 
break from a drove and go bellowing over the plains 
you will have some idea of the grace and musical 
accomplishments of my intercejjter. 

l£ Dit you try to find us, huh?" she asked. 
" You're de new Captain, mebbe ?" So here was an- 
other soldier of the Lord. Her petticoats were still 
painfully agitated about the ankles from her flying 
leap across the gutter onto the plank walk. I looked 
her up and looked her down, and if I had looked 
all over London town I could not have found another 
like her. 

"No ; I'm not the new Captain, but I was trying 
to find the officers of No. 8. Do you know them V 



SALVATION AEMY. 



187 



" Uh, hull! Veil, I'm one of dem girls. Come on." 

"Shades of ;" but even astonishment has a 

point beyond which it can not go. She was one of 
" dem girls!" Now come the deluge. I was quite 
as prepared for that as anything else. At the most, 
by her uniform, I thought she might be a convert 
of the officers of 'No. 8, If there was more to 
be learned I proposed to pull it all down on my 
devoted head. 

" Are you Cadet Wheeler?" 

"No-o. She's in de hoos by hersel. I'll show de 
vay. Uh, huh, you pretty near got lost, mebbe \ 
I saw you out de vindow, an' shout, 'oh cadet, 
dere's de new Captain ; she can't find de vay.' Den 
I run." 

She showed me "de vay." It was at 510, and the 
Major had made a mistake and the public very gen- 
erously followed his example of ignorance. It was 
in the rear of 510, a big building with a weather- 
beaten aspect that possibly harbored dozens of 
bodies and crushed as many souls. It stood on the 
street and climbed skyward and earthward. The 
lower panes had the glass supplemented by shingles, 
bits of old clothing or paper stuffed in the holes. 
We stumbled down a half-dozen rotten steps, dark 
with damp, and sinking soddenly under the steps. 
This ran the whole length of the building and was 
wedged in solidly between that and another house 
of an equally uninviting appearance and smell. 
There was a strip of sullen, gray sky far above, and 
anything but a "shining" vista of endless rows 
of coal-sheds and out-buildings. We got to the end 
of this walk after awhile and climbed some steep 



188 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



steps onto a platform at the back. This terminated 
in a shed-like portal, the outer gates of a door 
we presently went through and landed in a tiny 
kitchen which was just then as hot as hades. Iron- 
ing was going on, but this did not explain the heat 
to my entire satisfaction. In the light of after-ex- 
periences my own metaphor described it better. 

My guide through these devious ways was a Sweed, 
but she was not a clean, serene-eyed, domestic-beast - 
of -burden Sweed, such as I was accustomed to see- 
ing. The land of snows sends us some immaculate 
specimens, but Annie was not one of them. She was 
knotty and knobby and gnarled; she had not been 
bent in the direction in which she should have grown, 
and in maturity she fulfilled the proverb. She had 
lines and seams all over a face with washed-out eyes, 
and a dirty, yellowish -gray complexion. She was not 
responsible for that — to have got the dirt out of 
Annie's skin the ablutions should have begun with 
some remote ancestor. She had round shoulders, 
hay-colored hair as stiff as a leper' s and of uneven 
growth, an ungainly gait, and positively abnormal 
hands and feet. Her body was long and lank but 
not tall. Her coarse blue dress "hitched' up one 
side and down the other, though it had probably 
been made straight; her back and bosom reversed 
the generally accepted convex and concave lines. 
Altogether it would be a trial to have to see her 
scrubbing off the front steps occasionally, but to live 
with her as an equal! I congratulated myself on the 
fact that she was not Cadet Wheeler, but my con- 
gratulations were rather premature. Annie could 
not be duplicated, but I found out that she could 



SALVATION ARMY. 



189 



have a very formidable rival, and I afterward discov- 
ered that this first cursory glance did not begin to 
develop Annie' s resources as a thing of beauty. 

" I f oundt her, uh, huh!" she said, ushering me 
into the presence of Cadet Wheeler. Annie' s voice 
was a long, loud, rasping whine that set my teeth 
on edge. When she opened her mouth her jaw 
dopped fearfully, and left a cavern full of yellow 
fangs. It was a relief when she returned to her 
ironing. 

So this was the presiding officer of No. 8. That 
fair damsel was ensconced in a rocking-chair, which 
she filled to overflowing with her abundant charms. 
She was at least five feet eight inches, and weighed 
in the neighborhood of 175 pounds. She had a 
blonde bullet head, a round face, retreating chin and 
brow, high cheek bones, a very red and white skin, 
and the very smallest eyes and protruding mouth I 
have ever seen. Darwin' s theory has one more con- 
vert. Her hair was also stiff and unmanageable and 
of that indescribable lack of color, a dirty streak 
here and a faded one there. It was plastered tightly 
back into a little knot that didn't stay fastened. 
Stray stiff locks escaped and stood out about the 
ears like horns. As I entered she had three greasy 
wire hair-pins thrust into her little round mouth, 
and was trying to twist her hair into place. She had 
been engaged in the literary occupation of inditing 
an epistle with red ink. 

" G-od bless you!" she said, mechanically, without 
rising, and in a voice that came from the caverns of 
her memory of some ancestral saw-mill. I expe- 
rienced a positive physical shiver when she said it. 



190 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



I had been awed by this phrase, amused by it, grate- 
ful for it, but never until that moment disgusted by 
it. There was a distinct feeling that if ever I were 
to be blessed I preferred it to be without Cadet 
Wheeler's interposition. 

I gave her the Major's epistle. She spelled it over 
slowly, and then thundered: " Cadet, come here; 
here's a letter from the Major," by which I sur- 
mised that a letter from the Major was an event. 
The cadet, the Sweed, loped in from her ironing. 

" Let me see for mysel," she said, snatching the 
letter. " Vere's de name \ Oh, yes, uh, huh! Yat 
he write to you fur ?' ' There was envy and suspi- 
cion in her voice, the kind heard only among those 
so ignorant that they doubt all the multitude of un- 
intelligible things about them, the mysterious writ- 
ten document most. Annie could write, as I after- 
ward discovered, but possibly only in her native 
language. 

u You don't have to know everything people write 
to me. Give that back. This young lady will live 
with us, her and her cousin. The Major spoke to 
me about them before." 

" He did, huh ! Yen I vasn't dere, mebbe. Yell 
dey can come," she said, not ungraciously, consid- 
ering that everything they had belonged to the 
Army and the Lord. " I'm Happy Annie, because 
I'm so happy. Yat dey call you ?" 

" They just called me Bertie at Englewood." 

" Ain't you a cadet nor nothin' V 

"No; I'm just a soldier, I guess." 

" Oh, veil, you be smart, and serve the Lord, and 
you'll be an officer after avhile." I wondered if that 



SALVATION ARMY. 



191 



explained how Annie had got her d eserved promotion. 
If so, I very humbly begged to be excused. It was 
a novelty, too, to see a creature to whom Salvation 
Army distinctions were looked upon as a personal 
glory. I had suspected it of Millie occasionally, but 
here it was too palpable. Annie had been "pro- 
moted" from a past that could be easily guessed 
partly from this fact. 

"I'm so glad you've come," said Cadet Wheeler 
after she had got the hair-pins out of her mouth 
again. "We need help. Captain Stevenson has 
just left to be a staff-captain. We are all sick, and 
the meetings are not so good now because I can't 
sing. My voice has given out." 

"Indeed!" That was all I could say. I didn't 
wish the girl a bit of harm but I was devoutly thank- 
ful her voice had given out. I have no conception 
of what it might have been in its normal condition. 
In its present reduced state it made one's ears 
ache. 

' ' What a nice dress you have on. You are 
dressed as fine as a captain." It must have been 
the neatness of it and the white collar and cuffs that 
struck her so favorably, and she probably thought it 
all costly. Her own dress was of cheap summer 
cashmere; her jersey was too small, the sleeves being 
skin tight, and coming within four inches of her big 
red wrists. She was anything but lovely. At this 
moment a dark, slender, limp girl, in a blue Mother 
Hubbard wrapper, made her appearance from an 
inner chamber. She swung herself across the room 
and sank into a flabby heap on a chair. 

" This is Aggie, another cadet," remarked Cadet 



192 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



Wheeler, parenthetically. So they were all cadets 
''Aggie's been sick, too, and can t sing." 

tk I gness I been sick, too," said Happy Annie, 
suddenly reappearing. 

k k What' s the matter with yon, Annie V ' I asked 

ik Oh, I don't know. Mebbe I got de headache, 
sometimes. Gimme dat bottle. * 5 But Cadet Wheeler, 
becanse she was the biggest, and was also in spiritual 
authority, got the first pnll at " dat bottle." It 
was a cough sirup. Then Annie took some and 
Aggie. If I had thought to be sick I could have 
had some, too. It must have been a universal pan- 
acea, or they were all afflicted alike. I got up to say 
good-by then, promising to be back with my cousin 
in time for supper and the evening meeting. 

"You won't get much," said the cadet, bluntly. 
"We don't hardly make expenses. I expect they 
live high at Englewood." 

"No," I answered, disgusted at the coarse tone of 
envy. "They live very plainly. Never mind; we 
will all share what there is." One thing, it would 
be easier to give them money than it had been at 
Englewood. I mentally resolved to take charge of 
the larder at No. 8, and to see that it was kept filled 
during my stay. 

Then it was that I got back to Englewood as 
chronicled in the preceding chapter, got Jessie and 
our valises, boarded a Wentworth avenue car and 
rode into "Hell let loose," as the soldier so graphic- 
ally put it. Jessie had a full description of the joys 
that awaited her, during our ride, and was in a state 
of mental collapse by the time we reached our des- 
tination. We got there about five o'clock, and were 



SALVATION AEMY. 



193 



kissed ( ! ! ! ). The house was really not bad. It 
was clean, for one thing, thongh rather untidy, and I 
conceived the idea that Captain Stevenson probably 
ran things when she was on deck. The kitchen 
floor was covered with a bright oil cloth, and the 
sitting-room with an ingrain carpet, both new. These 
had been given them. There was a dining-table, a 
stationary washstand and sink, and a pantry built 
into the kitchen. The first thing I did, without even 
saying ' ' by your leave," was to explore that pantry. 
It contained a scanty supply of crockery, a half -loaf 
which was worse than no bread, a dish of butter, a 
teacup half full of ground coffee, and a few potatoes. 
Not a very promising supper for five hungry girls. 
Jessie made out a list of necessaries, and we went 
marketing, strolling down to Went worth avenue. In 
a butcher shop Jessie asked for porterhouse steak. 

"I've got some that's cheaper," said the butcher, 
accommodatingly. 

"Have you any that 1 s better ?" asked Jessie. He 
hadn't; so we got that, and doubtless gave Corps 
No. 8 a reputation for extravagance with that 
butcher. We got some butter, eggs, vegetables, 
coffee, tea, a box of white grapes, a jar of cream and 
some angel cake, satisfied that the wolf would stay 
away from the door of No. 8 for two meals at least. 
When two baskets of edibles were deposited on the 
kitchen table at our new residence some howls went 
up. 

"Oh, cadet, did you ever! Why there's every- 
thing you ever heard of to eat!" 

"Yere you get so much money, huh?" suspi- 
ciously. 

13 



194 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



" Earned it," said Jessie, laconically. It was not 
necessary to be cautions here, as at Englewood. 
" Don't you be alarmed. When this is gone there's 
plenty more where this came from." 

"Dit you vorkout?" 

" Yes, we worked out." 

"Cadet, de young ladies vorked out! I tink you 
been ashamed." 

There were some faint protests against an elaborate 
supper, and remarks that they never ate much for 
supper, anyhow. But Jessie and I invariably did eat 
a good deal when we could get it. I constituted 
myself cook and prepared that steak in the most 
approved manner. Annie made the coffee, and there 
was fresh bread and butter, white grapes and angel 
cake. 

Then Aggie brought out an antique apple pie 
and invited us to partake, but we were both consti- 
tutionally opposed to pie of any sort for supper, and 
to that species of the product at any time. An ex- 
ceedingly short grace had been said by the cadet 
and then everybody "pitched in." Perhaps it was 
because they usually " did not eat much for sup- 
per" that they made such havoc with this one. 
They all sat stoop-shouldered with their feet on the 
rungs of their chairs, and, thus braced, leaned over 
their plates and shoveled the food in on the con- 
veniently broad blades of steel knives. The repast 
was seasoned with conversation. 

"What kind of crowds do you have down here ?" 
I asked. 

"Well, they're pretty rough, but we just teach 
those boys to behave or walk out. A policeman 



SALVATION AEMY. 



195 



comes in, and Annie stands at the door to keep the 
worst ones ont." 

" I thought you never turned any of them away." 

' £ You bet we do. I ain't going to have boys come 
in just to raise a row." 

"But they might get saved," expostulated Jessie. 

"Dont you fool yourself. That ain't what they 
come for. Some of them Catholics ain't got any 
souls of their own; they give 'em to the priests, and 
then they do just as the priests tell them. That's 
the reason they behave so badly at our meetings." 

"You must be mistaken. I know a good deal 
about priests, and they keep thousands of rough 
young men behaving themselves decently." 

" When I was in Lockport," began Aggie, remi- 
niscently 

"You shut up about Lockport ; you tink nobody 
been anywhere but you," interrupted Annie, felicit- 
ously. Aggie ' ' pulled a face at her, ' ' as their phrase- 
ology has it, and said in an explanatory and concili- 
atory way: 

- 6 Annie hasn' t been in America long enough to 
know how to behave." 

"Yell, I got more Salvation dan you got, just de 
samee. Dat's vat count mit de Lord." Her jaw 
dropped horribly, and she sang 'between the drop- 
ping of grapes into the crater an original composition 
of her own: 

" I is Happy Annie, 
I's happy all de day, 
And since I join de Army 
I do nothing hut sing and pray. 
Hallelujah!" 

" Who say I can't sing, huh % You get your songs 



196 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



made up for yon, and I make up my own. Dat 9 s vat 
please de Lord." If Annie's song, in either sound 
or sentiment, pleased the Lord, His musical ear 
needs training, and His poetical feet guidance in 
other paths. But this was probably only among 
many other unauthorized statements of Annie's. 

At the end of the supper, which was lengthened 
interminably by such sweet converse, we knelt at 
our places, and Annie prayejil. At Englewood this 
returning of thanks was always silent and impress- 
ive; here it was noisy. Annie prayed in a highly 
original manner, so that on a later similar occasion 
Jessie brought her shorthand into requisition to 
reproduce a prayer that never varied in sound or sub- 
stance. The cadet groaned as if that apple pie had 
entered a protest, and Aggie furnished the responses; 
and this was the manner of the petition that was sent 
up : 

4 ' Oh, deah Lawd Jesus, uh, bress us, we pray De. 
Deah Lawd Jesus, we are but wohms of de dust, uh. 
Deah Lawd Jesus, go wid us, we pray De, to de 
meedting dis night, uh. Deah Lawd Jesus, bress de 
cadet, de Majah, de Marshal, and Aggie and de 
young ladies (us). Bress all who vill come to de 
meedting, veder dey come to praise De or to make 
fun of Dy bressed vord. Oh, deah Lawd Jesus, uh. 
Amen !" Annie always went on until she got to the 
end of her string. They all jumped up immediately. 

"Now, you want to hustle, girls, I tell you," 
remarked the cadet. "There is just time to read a 
little of the Sacred Word." She got the Bible, 
propped her feet on the rungs of her chair, planted 
her elbows on the table, opened that sacred 



SALVATIOH ARMY. 



197 



volume, and read a verse from the first chapter of 
Timothy: 

" < Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an 
apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.' " 

"Oh, dat's vor me," exclaimed Annie. "I be a 
preacher to de Gentiles. Yot's Gentiles, cadet?" 

" I don't know. I guess there ain't any, nowa- 
days." 

The book was closed after this lucid exposition, 
and opened again at random and another verse read 
from the fourth chapter of St. Luke. "And they 
were astonished at His doctrine; for His word was 
with power." 

"Oh! 1 ' screamed Aggie. "That's just right for 
me. I used to astonish my own folks so with pow- 
erful words, and they wondered where I got them. 
I said 4 they come from the Lord.' Now read one 
for the young ladies." Jessie and I didn't know 
what to make of all this. Again was the Word of 
God thrown like dice to see what spots would come 
up. It was nothing but a variation of a vulgar 
method of telling fortunes Every reading was 
greeted with screams of laughter. Jessie and I 
looked at each other, and wondered what we had 
done to draw this unhallowed deluge down on us. 

"Shall I read your verse," asked the fortune 
teller. 

"Oh, just as you please." It disgusted me, 
shocked me, and made me physically sick. She read 
averse from somewhere; then Jessie was favored, 
and last of all the cadet's turn came. But the cadet 
would not take the first trial as an ultimatum. She 
tried several times, until she found a verse that 



198 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



suited her. I don't remember just what it was that 
satisfied her fastidious taste, but it had the word 
"cherubs" in it, and the cadet pronounced it 
"ckairbubs.'' Jessie nearly rolled off her chair, and 
the cadet looked up surprised. 

"Cadet, vat's chairbubs?" asked Happy Annie, 
with her happiest expression. 

"I guess it's them little boys with wings. Aggie, 
ain't you got that funny valentine with one of them 
chairbubs on it?' ' 

' ' Oh, yes, I know now. I seen ' em in de vindow. 
I didn't know de Lawd have dem little boys around; 
vy, dey don't vare no clothes." 

"There's lots of things you don't know, Annie. 
Sometimes you think yourself so everlasting smart, 
too." 

" Uh, huh! Yell, I am smarter dan some people 
I know, anyhow," with which statement, indisput- 
able because it was impossible to jDremise whom 
Annie had had ox3X3ortunities of knowing, the ex- 
change of civilities ceased. 

This blasphemy had gone on for a half -hour. At 
the end of it Jessie and I crept into the dark sitting- 
room and the rocking-chair, where we sat shivering 
with our arms about each other, absolutely speech- 
less. The cadet, a colossal shadow, moved about 
putting on her wraps and gathering her implements 
of salvation together. She wore a tight fitting- 
jersey jacket that made her look more than ever like 
a bass drum. The tambourines were put into blue 
cambric bags and dangled on the arms, the bonnets 
tied under the chins, then they came in search of us 
in the dark. 



SALVATION ARMY. 



199 



" You two think a good deal of each other, don't 
you?" asked the cadet as she stumbled over us. 
" Captain Stevenson and I used to be just like that, 
but some folks you can' t love if you try," with a con- 
temptuous glance at Annie. 

"Nobody asked you to try," snapped that felic- 
itous damsel. 

4 I am just a drowning man's straw to Jessie," I 
responded wearily, as we both got up. 

"Huh?" 

But my little parable was left unexplained. See- 
ing how successful it was, we talked after that in 
parables to exchange confidences, and it served the 
purpose as well as any other foreign language. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

There was a walk of about six blocks through a 
portion of Chicago teeming with every species of life 
and death, virtue and vice; across Wentworth 
avenue on Thirty-first street, and north on State street 
almost to Twenty- ninth. All the thoroughfares were 
brilliantly lighted; people were hurrying up town and 
down; street cars rattled by; the thunder of a thou- 
and hoofs were in our ears mingled with the roar of 
the cable trains as they rushed by with their freight 
of humanity. No one noticed us; the three cadets 
walked together, their arms affectionately interlaced, 
making a formidable daisy chain across the pave- 
ment. Jessie and I followed in the rear, also inter- 
laced for mutual support. 

When we reached the hall it was 7.30 o'clock. 



200 



TACTS ABOUT THE 



The hall was designated the ' ' Salvation Army Tem- 
ple, " and a temple it was, in all probability made by 
unskilled hands. It was a big barn of a place con- 
structed of brick, with two wide leaves forming the 
door, and one narrow, tall window, partly boarded 
up, being the only apertures in front. There was 
no attempt at finish on the interior except a coat of 
whitewash on the bricks. One window opened onto 
the platform at the rear, and a skylight was let in 
above for the entrance of light, air, and other etcet- 
eras which developed later on. The building, until 
recent date, had been occupied as a livery stable, 
and was admirably fitted for that purpose. To make 
it suitable for the use to which it was now being put 
the stalls had been taken out and some rude benches, 
that were unfortunately movable, had been put in. 
The water pipes, which had been used for equine 
inhabitants, were leaking and the water ran in little 
streams down the asiles. Everything had a ram- 
shakle appearance. ' ' Straight was the gate and 
narrow was the way ' ' to the mourner's bench if one 
avoided wading through pools of water and rending 
the garments on projecting nails in the benches. For 
the privilege of holding religious services in this 
place, Corps No. 8 paid $40 a month. 

"Ten dollars every week," remarked the cadet. 
; 'We have to pay every Monday." 

" That is about $44 a month," said Jessie, par- 
enthetically, but they didn't figure it that way. 
There were just four weeks in a month, $40. Just 
for curiosity I should have liked to see their contract 
to have discovered whether it was by calendar or 
lunar time they calculated. This place had been 



SALVATION ARMY. 



201 



leased for three years at that rate, they stated, 
though at the time of going to press the building 
was again occupied for a sale stable. The Major 
had probably arranged for their use of the place, 
and I had discovered that the Major has a long head 
for business. When it is necessary he generally 
succeeds in shutting up shop without financial 
liabilities. 

One curly-headed young soldier, in a red Guernsey, 
and an accordion, was present, and a half-dozen 
children, who were tramping over the platform beat- 
ing tambourines and yelling. 

"Now, you young ones, shut up," yelled the 
cadet, who seemed gifted with the power to make 
people noisy. The soldier with the accordion blessed 
us in some North European dialect, the children 
pulled our garments to pieces, and we left them 
behind us as we fled, as did a certain Biblical hero 
when tempted to sin. I was tempted to choke off 
the noise of one of them, and the only safety lay in 
flight. The acoustic properties of that building 
were something fearful; the noise which could be 
produced there was unique. 

" Oh, cadet, may I beat a tambourine?" 

4 ' Cadet, let me take up the collection?' ' 

" Cadet, cadet, cadet." 

" Shut up, shut up, I tell you. I can't hear any- 
thing," she yelled in reply. The accordion retired 
to a safe corner with its master and was stilled. By 
and by the tempest was lulled into silence. Annie 
took up her station at the door with a belligerent 
aspect, and inspected each applicant for admission. 
It is presumed that the very black sheep were 



202 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



refused, but others with very large and exceedingly 
dark spots did get in. Many who came as far as the 
portal saw her and fled incontinently. Others were 
bolder. 

' 6 Vat you come here vorf ' she asked one young 
man. 

' * To get saved. Isn' t that what you keep this 
place open for?" 

' c You come last night to get saved and you get 
put out by a police. I know you.'' 

"Well, it wasn't my fault. You can save me if 
you want to." 

" Yell, you go in and behave." He went in, giv- 
ing a wink to a crowd that followed him. That was 
our first installment of audience — nearly twenty 
young men who slouched in, banged the door, 
scraped their feet across the floor and slammed 
themselves into the back seat, which very suddenly 
lost its equilibrium. They got up off the floor look- 
ing exceedingly surprised that such a thing should 
have happened. The children roared, stamped, and 
beat tambourines, adding to the general melee. 
Annie was undecided just what to do, but the cadet 
settled that for her by thundering from the platform 
with bovine pleasantry: 

u JSTow, you young men, come right up here where 
we can see if you are as pretty as you behave. Ain't 
you ashamed of yourselves back there?" Young 
America is nothing if not accommodating. They 
slouched up grinning, quite willing to take front 
seats at the circus since it did not interfere with 
their performance. 

Those young men were the nucleus of the dis- 



SALVATION ARMY. 



turbance that evening and all other evenings. They 
came first, they left last, they took prominent seats 
and obeyed any gentle request from the cadet with 
suspicions alacrity. I watched them, and there were 
several good comedians among them worth watch- 
ing. As the crowd came in and the house filled, the 
resources of those boys gradually developed. One 
had delirium tremens, another St. Vitus dance of 
the most aggravated and aggravating description; a 
pin would find its way to a third one's hide. They 
had bad colds, and the disease became epidemic. 
Tears stood in their eyes from the violent paroxysms 
of coughing that seized them. The benches were 
rocked recklessly to the point of overturning. There 
was laughing all over the house, scraping of feet 
and benches, cat-calls, whistles, rooster-crows, and 
the entrance of a new-comer who emerged alive from 
an encounter with Annie was an excuse for a fresh 
outbreak. A half-dozen who sat on the front benches 
were the only sober ones present. These good, 
religious souls looked helplessly at the cadet, and the 
cadet was unmoved in her complacency. This was 
her native heath on which she was treading with 
elephantine precision and bulk. Aggie flitted about 
restlessly, her dark, sallow face with the weak chin 
framed in the jet-black hair, unlit except by her 
black and yellow eyes. She was absolutely helpless, 
unable to stem the tide, or float with it, so she was 
whirled about in every eddy and washed against the 
shore — the platform — where she was stranded peri- 
odically an inert, water-soaked mass cast up by the 
waves t hat went on. 

" Silence," yelled the cadet, in tones that aroused 



204 



FACTS ABOIJT THE 



no suspicion that her voice had given out. "We 
are going to begin the meeting now." She walked 
up and down the platf orm with her hands clasped 
across her ample back, her little blonde eyes popping 
out over her big cheeks; the little chin being 
scarcely sufficient anchorage for her bonnet strings. 
"We are going to begin the meeting now," she re- 
peated. But her threat was not instantly executed; 
the cadet might be ready, but a large minority of 
the audience was not. After about ten minutes of 
persistent hammering for silence the noise subsided 
so she could be heard. Annie and Aggie went down 
the aisle — two to watch, and one to pray, though 
Jessie and I, a German woman, and the red Guernsey 
all flanked the cadet on the wings. She was a host 
in herself, and laid such stormy siege to the pearly 
gates that they must have surrendered at discretion 
within Ave minutes. Aggie and Annie did not kneel 
but kept vigilant eyes on their audience. This did 
not prevent some startling responses, groans, hisses, 
and a few etceteras from flying about. 

"Amen!" was thundered at last. We were all on 
our feet. 

"We are going to sing a song now. Everybody 
sing. I heard a man say he got saved by singing 
this song." The cadet read the first verse. She had 
caught the trick of getting out of breath at the end 
of the line from Annie. 

" At the cross, uh, at the cross, uh, 

Where I first found the light, uh, 
And the burden of my heart rolled away, uh. 

It was there by faith, uh, 

I received my sight, uh, 
And now I am happy all the day, uh." 



SALVATION ARMY. 



205 



"Praise God, I'm happy. The burden of my 
heart rolled away when I asked Jesus to take them. 
You may think I ought to carry my own burdens. 
Maybe I'm bigger than Jesus, maybe I ain't, but 
anyhow, He said He' d carry all the burdens and He 
took mine.'' 

"Better ask Him to carry your voice outdoors," 
called out an inspired genius. My head was begin- 
ning to swim from proximity to her noise so that this 
remark had my entire sympathy. 

" Cadet," she thundered, to Annie. "Find that 
hoodlum and put him out.' ' But Annie didn' t find 
him. I notice they always roll each other's titles out 
in public and in private. 

"Well, nevermind. He'll get paid back for it. 
Everybody sing. You young men had better behave. 
Do you know where you will go when you die ?" 

"Into the soup!" from a sepulchral voice. The 
audience roared, but above all the laughter and 
stamping of feet a still small falsetto voice of a ven- 
triloquist arose plaintively: "H you get there 
before I do ' ' 

The assembled company went off in another con- 
vulsion of laughter. This was better than a minstrel 
show, because entirely impromptu. Those boys were 
the star actors, and fully deserved the encores they 
got. Annie and Aggie flew around utterly per- 
plexed as to the offenders. It would have taken a 
mind-reader to have discovered them. I was look- 
ing straight at the two rows and could not detect 
the culprits. They were the only people in the 
house who were perfectly serious; their faces 
expressed surprise and concern. When Annie came 



206 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



near them, two got up and offered their services to 
help put the offenders out. 

"Keep still now," bellowed the cadet. "We're 
going to sing. She started the tune an octave too 
high and carried it alone, swinging her big arms and 
beating her tambourine. "Why don't everybody 
sing ?" 

" You got it too high;" piped a child, who really 
wanted to assist in making a religious racket. 

"All right; let's try it again. Everybody sing." 
Jessie and I helped and the accordion kept up its 
complaining voice. One verse was all we got through. 
There was a shrill whistle, a cat- call, a rooster crow, 
and where they all came from no one could tell. The 
cadet pounded on her tambourine for silence. 

" Sit down, good people — it's no one but rowdies, 
the very scum and off-scourings of the earth. They'll 
get their deserts when they die. I was told when I 
came down here that Satan was on top in the fight, 
and I guess he is, but we're going to spit on our 
hands and whip him." 

"Queensbury rules," shouted someone. "Fair 
play there. No slugging. ' ' 

"Oh, you low down boys, ain't you ashamed of 
yourselves ?" No; they were not. I should not 
have been either, if such epithets had been applied 
to me from one who had set herself up as a spiritual 
guide. There was nothing mean and low about it; 
it was just rowdy fun, and they had good reason to 
suppose that something of the kind would be 
expected of them. The rowdy always keeps such 
engagements religiously. Just as a psychological 
study, I should like to have seen Bertha Leyh at 



SALVATION ARMY. 



207 



No. 8. The coarseness, ignorance, and vulgarity 
from the platform were met by the rowdyism from 
the benches, and the rowdies had the best of it. 
For the sake of order the law had to take one side, 
and in this case it discriminated in favor of the cadet 
because she was supposed to be conducting religious 
services. A policeman appeared then and marched 
six young men out, but the instant the blue coat- 
tails disappeared pandemonium began again where 
it had left off. So did the vituperation. I got up 
so indignant I could not sit still. The audience 
was silent, expecting another tirade. I took the 
cadet by the sleeve, and said so that everybody 
heard me: 

" It does seem to me that young men will behave 
from self-respect if you trust them to do so." 

Those boys waited for the cadet to bellow forth: 
"No, they won't. They ain't got no self-respect, 
nor nothin' they ought to have. This young lady 
came from Englewood, where people have some 
decency, and thinks I ought to trust you to behave. 
She don't know you as well as I do." 

I sat down, and my heart went out to the audi- 
ence. The cadet's last speech had been greeted with 
the old time fervor. " You see! 1 ' she said, turning to 
me and glorying in her superior wisdom. I saw. 
I got up presently to sing, and stood still for the 
crowd to become quiet. 

" They won't be any stiller, dear; you may as well 
sing, ' ' said the cadet. ' ' Dear !" echoed Jessie. But 
I waited until the waves calmed, and then sang. 
Jessie helped me with her tender alto on the chorus, 
but I was so agitated, so humiliated by my false po- 



208 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



sition, that my voice broke. The boys laughed, but 
grew quiet again, and I sang another verse from 
sheer indignation, and then Jessie and I walked off 
the platform and took a front seat. We could not, 
by our presence on the platform longer indorse 
the cadet's sledge-hammer style of conducting a 
meeting. Her voice, too, made my ears ache. I 
went down through the audience once to get a 
breath of fresh air without any noise in it. In this 
way I got a closer view of the audience, and its com- 
position was such as I had surmised. They were 
alert, intelligent, fun -loving people, not over-refined 
nor educated perhaps, but decent, respectable, hard- 
working folk, interspersed with young America, who 
sows his wild oats and then settles down into such 
as the others. There were no bad faces among them. 
They looked at me curiously as I passed among 
them, but were respectful. One young man said : 
" God bless you, sister," in a mocking tone. 

"Thank you," I answered, with a weary smile. I 
neither corroborated his sentiment nor admitted his 
evident intention to ridicule me, and the embryo 
laugh at my expense " died a-bornin'." 

"Vy don'dt you stay on de platform?" asked 
Annie, suspiciously, as I reached her settee, near the 
door. 

"Because I don't have to," I snapped. A little 
of their vulgarity had rubbed off on me. It was just 
as well ; if one is finer than her associates she will be 
run over rough-shod. I did not particularly care 
about Annie's hoofs getting on me. I went back 
presently, lingering a moment near those young men 
to study them. They looked me over indulgently, 



SALVATION ARMY. 



209 



but made no remark. The cadet was reading an- 
other song : 

•' When I begin to doubt 

Jesus drives the devil out — 
Climbing up the golden stair. 

When I begin to fear 

Jesus takes me by the ear — 
Climbing up the golden stair." 

' ; That' s the war Jesus does. Sometimes Lj takes 
you by the ear, or nose, or hair— any place he can 
get a good hold on you — and leads you right p to 
Him." Those inspired boys began to illustrate on 
each other these rather original ways of being led 
into the paths of righteousness, and the people 
around them had something brand-new to laugh at. 
The song was sung with variations. Then there was 
a long exhortation rilled with pleasantries and allu- 
sions and epithets. TTe knelt and prayed, and our 
impartial assistants in the performance responded 
with surprising appropriateness and fervor. Finally 
the cadet announced : 

' * You can go home now; the meeting's over." The 
crowd jostled and tumbled itself out good-naturedly. 
A half-dozen staid to shake hands, among thein 
two of those boys. 

u What did you stay for 2" I asked a natty one, 
with curling, chestnut hair, and fair, serious face. 

"To get saved. Don't you think I'll get saved?" 
anxiously. 

' • Hardly. ' ' I shook my hea d in very mild reproof 
of a gentle squeeze he got in on my hand. 

"Oh, see here, you shouldn't judge a fellow by 
the coat he wears." 

14 



210 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



" You would do very well if your manners were 
equal to your coat." 

"Permit me to say that your own manners are so 
charming that my own must not be mentioned;" he 
gave me a most elegant bow. 

" You did that very well. You do many things 
well. Your ventriloquism is really quite good." 

" You do me injustice," he said sadly; then airily, 
" ta-ta I will be on deck to-morrow night." 

His impudence was so amazing that it was admi- 
j'Al/le Surely he might be beaten, but only with his 

m v/eapons turned unexpectedly against him. At 
me door we were stopped by a policeman, a hand- 
some Hercules, who walked down the block with 
us. 

"You don't belong to this gang?" he said, with 
rare discrimination. 

"No, we are from Englewood." 

"Well, don't get discouraged. I'll take care of 
the worst ones for you. The presiding officer is not 
as soothing as she might be, but the boys are too 
rough. I think it does them good to see real ladies 
in the Army. I don't know what good these girls 
are supposed to do down here, but we have our or- 
ders to allow no disturbance of religious meetings. 
I see you two are a different sort." 

When we reached the house the officers of "No. 8 
devoured the cold remains of that ancient pie and 
laughed at our fears. 

< ' Why, that ain' t nothhi' , 5 ' said the cadet. < ' They 
smashed all the windows in one night and set fire to 
the curtains. That's the reason we ain't got any. 
Then they put matches and percussion caps on the 



SALVATION AEMY. 



211 



floor and make a grand rush when they hear a fire 
engine." 

" You seem to be equal to them," remarked Jessie. 

" You bet I am. But I wouldn't be if the Lord 
didn't help me," she added as an afterthought. 
' 4 Praise the Lord." 

" Amen !" said Annie. " Bress Jesus." 

The cadet prayed for us that we might have more 
faith, but when those three began to disrobe for the 
night we tied from the revelations a few moments 
might bring forth and took refuge in our sanctuary. 
For we did get to sleep alone ! There are some 
blessings not to be overrated. One dormitory was 
made by dragging the top mattress off the bed and 
spreading it on the sitting-room floor. Jessie and I 
occupied the torture chamber, but in blessed soli- 
tude. 

That bed ! It was as hard as Pharaoh' s heart, and 
as knotty as a problem in equations. The pillows 
were small and lumpy, and the whole conglomera- 
tion of things unknown had a smell of the catacombs 
on it. 

" Shall I ascend unto the skies 
On flowery beds of ease?" 

quoth Jessie. 

" If I ascend on this one, I know who will pay the 
doctor's bills." 

Only six hours at No. 8, and already oblivion 
would have been welcome. We talked it over there 
in the dark, clinging to each other, and determined 
to stay as long as possible, but time at 'No. 8 
was not to be measured by the sun. I was ready to 
indorse the Englewood soldier' s opinion of our new 



212 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



quarters, but lie probably did not understand that 
the officers in charge were elements of discord not 
lightly to be considered in making up the sum total 
of torture. 

"Oh, you shut up about Lockport," said Annie, 
just as slumber was about to enfold us, Evidently 
Aggie had grown reminiscent again. 

" Deah Lawd Jesus, bress Annie dis night," she 
said fervently, a moment later. 

" Shut up your praying. I want to go to sleep," 
and silence fell over us for a space, then a gentle 
snore. I fitted my weary body into the depressions 
and projections of that bed and fell asleep crying 
"Lord, deliver us." 



CHAPTER XVII. 

" Oh, Lord, please send Trotter with my trunk," 
were the words which greeted my ears on awak- 
ing from our first night's repose with the officers of 
No. 8. Opening the door of our dormitory softly, 
Aggie was seen kneeling on the floor by the impro- 
vised bed sending up her touching appeal. Annie 
was lying tied up in a true-lover's knot on the mat- 
tress, and the cadet had dumped herself down and 
fallen together again in a mass. It was a sweet 
picture for the early hours of the morning, before the 
world has had time to make one cynical. 

" Oh, you shut up askin' de Lawd to send your 
trunk. You tink he got notin' else to do, mebbe," 
interposed Happy Annie, whom the light of another 
day found in her happiest mood. She twisted her- 



SALVATION ARMY. 



213 



self over into another astonishing combination, and 
fell asleep again. Failing to find sympathy for her 
woes, Aggie lay with her arms above her head, star- 
ing hard at the ceiling, her slender, sallow face 
looking like an nnlighted candle in the gloom. 

Onr own room was a little larger than the memor- 
able one in which we alternately slept and laid awake 
at Englewood, bnt it was eminently less cheerful. 
The walls were dark and stained, and the interior 
was lighted by a window about the size of a sheet of 
legal cap paper, now tightly barred with a wooden 
shutter that opened onto the aforementioned plank 
walk running along the side of the house. A row 
of dresses depended from nails on one side of the 
room, and a trunk stood at the end of the bed. It 
all smelled musty and damp. 

"What are these pillows made of ?" asked Jessie. 
She was sitting up in bed with one of those tiny 
lumps in her hands, examining it curiously. 

"Blessed if I know." 

"Ok, Lord, please send Trotter with my trunk," 
came again through the half- closed door. Aggie was 
again kneeling and praying, rocking herself to and 
fro. 

"Aggie," I called softly. 

She slipped up from her knees in an instant, came 
into our bedroom, and unburdened herself. It seems 
that she had only recently been transferred from 
Lockport, and her trunk had been left behind in the 
melee. Adjutant Trotter had promised to bring the 
trunk along the next time he visited Lockport, but 
two weeks had elapsed, and Trotter and the trunk 
were still non est, hence Aggie 1 s appeal to her never- 



214 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



failing source. of aid, whether the boon asked was for 
spiritual help or trunks. Doubtless the subject of 
her prayers was growing monotonous, and Happy 
Annie had "kicked" at last, in spite of her cogno- 
men. 

Aggie sat on the edge of our bed, her knees drawn 
up and her chin resting on them, while she gave us 
a musical recital of the troubles that lodged in her 
gentle breast. She would not have been a bad look- 
ing girl if she had been " cleaned up," had her inky 
mane reduced to becoming order, put on shoulder 
braces, and stopped whining. It seems that other 
modes of life did have charms for her, but the instant 
she began to suspect that fact she lopped herself 
down again in pretty short order. 

"I didn't always live this way. Why, if my 
father could see me he would just drag me back 
home by the hair. He used to be the best purvider 
in Peoria, and never let us want for anything. I 
had more dresses than you could shake a stick at. 
I wonder what they done with 'em all; made 'em 
over for the kids, likely." She heaved a long sigh. 
"But I don't care; ' I ain't never going to wear 'em 
again myself. I had one, a red dress, that I used to 

wear to parties when I used to go with " I 

started, for she mentioned an acquaintance of my 
own. 

"How often did you go with him to parties, 
Aggie ?" I asked. 

"Oh, I guess I never went with him. Once I 
danced with him. He only staid a few moments 
at a party we had. He was too stuck up to go with 
our set, but we was just as aristocratic as any of 



SALVATION" ARMY. 



215 



them." It transpired that Aggie's list of acquaint- 
ances did not include any of mine with this one 
exception. 

" Father says I ain't got any sense since I saw 
'Happy Harry.' Ain't he grand? You ought to 
have seen him dedicate a baby." So that was where 
I had seen Aggie. She had struck me as having a 
familiar look, but I gave her no hint that I had been 
present at Happy Harry's star engagement in 
Peoria. 

The two heaps of humanity in the next room had 
begun to squirm, and Aggie betook herself back to 
her toilet and left us to get up. Jessie went out for 
some sugar and cream, and I got breakfast. Annie 
propped her feet on the stove hearth, and the cadet 
made a leisurely toilet, moving about the house for 
fifteen minutes in a red decollete vest and abbrevi- 
ated petticoats. This private view would never have 
secured her an engagement from the master of the 
ballet, though if she would sit still and feed for a 
year or two a dime museum might be able to use her. 

" Uh, huh, you're a good cook," remarked Annie, 
in praise of my efforts to shir some eggs and stir 
up the fire with a steel fork at the same time. " I 
could cook vonce, but I tink of de Lawd now and let 
tings burn sometimes. I guess you be Marta to cook 
de Lawd a square meal, and I Mary to sit at de 
Savior's feet. Dere'sgotto be some more kind of 
peebles in de vorld," for which fact I was corre- 
spondingly grateful. 

"Cadet, how dat song got ' We'll give our hearts 
to Jesus.' " 

" Shut up your singin' and get yourself dressed," 



216 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



for Annie was still minus her shoes, and her hair had 
not been combed. 

" You don't vant no one to sing but you. I guess 
I sing if I vant to. Oh, yes I know de vay it go: 

" ' We'll give our hearts to Jesus, 
For this is the prop — 
This is the prop — 
This is the proper caper.'" 

" Great Csesar! Jessie, you oughtn't to startle 
me so." For Annie's song had made me drop a fry- 
ing pan, and, as I was particularly anxious for her to 
go on, the blame had to be laid on someone else. 
And she went on: 

" 'He has saved rny soul from sin, 
For this is the prop — 
This is the prop — 
This is the proper caper.' " 

"Dey got such funny vords to a song. Yots a 
proper caper? I never get hold der English. Yere 
I cook vonce de lady bring me a bottle of capers to 
stir in der gravy ven dey have lamb. Dat don' t 
make no sense in a song. Oh, veil, de Lawd He un- 
derstand." 

' ' He' d have his hands full if he always understood 
you, ' ' said the cadet in her most conciliatory manner. 

We had got up at nine, but Annie's musical pro- 
gramme, and the cadet' s toilet were not finished until 
nearly ten, when we sat down. 

' ' Oh, dear Jesus, make us thankful for this good 
breakfast which the young ladies have j>rovided (so 
it wasn't the Lord himself). It isn't often we get 
such a good one brought to us and already prepared 
for our mouths like this. Bless us and keep us 



SALVATION AEMY 



217 



for Jesus' sake. Amen, 5 ' was the somewhat remark- 
able grace said by the cadet. The cadet did know 
. how to be grateful when troubles were taken off 
her hands, but she accepted it all as quite her dues 
often withheld. It was eleven when we arose from 
the table. The intervening hour was spent in rem- 
iniscences. 

"I was converted in Peoria," began Aggie, whose 
last name we never by any chance heard. Neither 
did we Annie 1 s. Both were as innocent of a family 
name for ordinary use as were Adam and Eve of gar- 
ments before the fall. "Oh, they had the power 
there I tell you." 

" Dey had de power at Number Yon, vere I found 
de Savior, too, I believe," broke in Annie, jealously. 

" I don't care if they did; you shut up. My folks 
didn't want me to join the Army, but I said, ' Dear 
Lord, if you want me I'll go.' I got right down on 
my knees and rassled with sin, and I whipped. The 
Lord, said for me to come and I come, but I never 
thought what kind of company I'd get in, where peo- 
ple didn't have no raisin'." 

"Huh!" Aggie raised her delicate brows, finding 
her shaft had gone home. ' ' I'd sing around the 
house all the time, and it made my mother so mad, 
but the madder she got the more I' d sing. It was 
just the devil's way of trying to keep me from sing- 
ing. I hated to leave my home and father, but by- 
and-by I guess they were glad to let me go. The 
Lord softened their hearts." Or Aggie deviled the 
life out of them. The whole process seemed so j)lain 
and so painfully ludicrous — of an innocent family 
the victims of a systematic course of subjection from 



218 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



Aggie combined with what she was pleased to call 
the Lord. 

Sw-o-o-p, sw-o-o-p! Annie was licking np a saucer 
of oatmeal and cream audibly. When the saucer 
was dry she wiped her tongue around her chin and 
spoke: " You stop talkin' about your fader. You 
tink nobody got a fader but you." 

" People' s fathers are very different. I have got 
cause to love mine ' ' 

"Yell, I love my fader, too, but I don't talk of 
him all de time. Cadet, hand me dat cream." 

" Oh, how I love Jesus," sang Aggie, tantalizingly. 

" Shut your mouths. You make a racket all the 
time," expostulated the cadet. 

"Yell, you ain't boss. You ain't de captain. 
Ye talk if ve vant to.' ' 

"Well, give somebody else a chance. Let the 
young ladies tell how they were converted." They 
always designated us as "the young ladies," even 
in their prayers. 

" It was Mrs. Booth, wasn't it, Bertie?" asked 
Jessie. 

"Mrs. Booth! Oh, you ought to be glad. I'd a 
give anything for Mrs. Booth to convert me. You 
know she' s a fine woman, no common trash, but area! 
aristocrat. Her father was a country gentleman. 
Shut up, Annie, I know he was. She ran oif when 
only sixteen years old and joined General Booth in 
Paris. Then she married the Marshal and came to 
America. My, but they had a grand wedding, and 
everybody loves her because she's such a lady and 
so sweet and pleasant. ' ' 

"Anybody could be sweet and pleasant if they 



SALVATION ARMY 



219 



married a marshal. You bet I ain't going to marry 
no common soldier," supplemented Aggie. 

"What you going to do with that feller of yours 
in Lockport?' ' 

£ 5 1 am t got no feller there nor anywhere else, ' ' 
but looking conscious. "But I used to have before 
I joined the Army, you bet. Father said the boys 
come around our house like flies around a molasses 
barrel. Bat now there ain't anybody but the sol- 
diers, and I don't want any of them." 

£ ' I suppose you think you'll get a staff-captain. 
Mebby vou've got your eyes on Trotter or "Happy 
Harry." 

" Harry' s engaged. Didn't you know that?" So 
my chance of him was gone. It was time for me to 
backslide. As we got up from the table at last 
Aggie began a doeful song to the merry, merry tune 
of Captain Jinks: 

" At last there came a brighter day, 
I into an Army meeting did stray ; 
Then Jesus washed my sins away, 
And so I joined the Army. 
Through a mother's prayers it came to pass, 
It came to pass, 
It came to pass, 
All through a Hallelujah lass, 

And so I joined the Army." 

It rained all day Friday. Those words look 
simple, but combined with other elements they are 
tragical. We cleaned the house in fifteen minutes. 
Annie piled the mattress back onto the bed, Aggie 
washed the dishes, and the cadet turned to her 
official meditations and began to iron as soon as she 
could get the stove clear of Aggie's dishwater. 



220 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



Annie sat down in her bare feet and faced a dress - 
skirt after a Scandinavian peasant fashion of her 
own, and Aggie lopped down in her dirty Mother 
Hnbbard wrapper, propped her feet on the rnngs of 
her chair and sang songs out of the War Cry in a 
whining, falsetto voice. Her tar-black hair hnng 
in strings abont her swarthy face, ont of which a 
pair of really good black eyes looked vacantly. Her 
elbows were planted on her knees with her face, 
looking elfin-like, between her hands. Jessie went 
ont into the rain, ostensibly to see her "Amity," 
and I deliberately revised my notes nnder their very 
eyes. 

' "Yon write so fnnny," said Annie, who peeped 
over my shoulder. " I can't read it." 

"It's Choctaw hieroglyj)hics," I explained. 

' ' Uh, huh. I tought it was somedtings. " 

I finished my notes and tried to think of some- 
thing else to do. Aggie was still singing ; the cadet 
had finished her ironing and was lolling in her rock- 
ing-chair; Annie bent above her sewing, putting in 
a stitch and a word of complaint. Her jaw dropped; 
she chewed her tongue when she reached a bad 
place. 

"De Lawd didn't make me to sew a dress," she 
complained. 

"What did He make you for, Annie — for orna- 
ment?' ' 

' ' Huh? Yell, he make me to sing and pray and 
tell His blessed vord. I don't do nothin' else so 
good, it' s too hard vork.' ' This was a new theory 
that the Lord took the refuse of humanity that 
could do nothing else acceptably. It still rained; 



SALVATION ARMY. 



221 



the talk and singing went on. and Jessie did not 
return until three o'clock, and when she got back I 
was at the point of distraction and fell into her arms 
and wept. The table had stood all day with some- 
thing edible on it. and hourly visits were made to it, 
so that when Jessie and I spoke of a lunch none of 
them were hungry. 

" Vat's a lunch?" asked Annie. Jessie groaned. 
" Oh. yes. I know, it's a little meal soniedtime in de 
day. Dey used to have dem vere I vorked before 
I join de Army. I eat dem little meals all de time, 
and don't vant anoder." This process of eating all 
the time had exhausted our supplies, and we went 
out in the rain for more before supper time. We 
had put on all the vanities renounced at Engle- 
wood, and our bangs came down at that afternoon 
toilet, our jewelry went on. and they all excited no 
comments except admiring ones. 

* • They thought we ought not to wear them at En- 
glewood." we explained. 

,; Some of the Army folks are fools. They think 
the grace of God is all there is. It's a good deal, 
but it isn't everything." remarked the cadet calmly. 
" If I had jewelry, you bet I'd wear it." 

" Yes; and where would you be about the time they 
was passing the gold crowns around ?" asked Aggie, 
triumphantly. U I like jewelry, but I ain't agoing 
to miss that crown for a little brass down here. I 
don' t see no harm in wearing a watch or a ring, if a 
fellow gives it to you. Over in Lockport " 

' ' There' s your old Lockport again. ' ' Aggie made 
a face at the cadet, and resumed her musical 
studies. 



222 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



The day wore on, and wore on our spirits. We 
did absolutely nothing but listen to the incessant 
talk that poured in a steady stream or dribbled 
through the day. All we heard was the changes 
rung on salvation and providence, and all we saw 
was a lack of salvation, and improvidence. Those 
three big, stout girls sat there, rocking, droning, 
whining, idling, and recounting the events of similar 
purposeless days as this, and the larder was empty, 
and the domestic-service problem still unsolved^ 
The failure of the supplies seemed to trouble them 
not in the least. When supper time arrived, the 
cadet went to the pantry. 

"Annie, Aggie," she thundered; "there ain't a 
speck to eat.' ' 

" Vel, you vait avile; de Lawd, he send someding. 
Deah Lawd Jesus, send someding for Annie to eat." 
she prayed. 

"Why don't you ask for the rest of us, while you 
are at it V ' asked Aggie, looking up from the War 
Cry spread on her knees. 

" I am washed in the blood, 
In the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb," 

she sang. "Oh, when you have the love of God 
in your heart, you don't care for things to eat." 
But 1 took occasion to observe that Aggie ate her 
meals with commendable regularity while we were 
at No. 8, not to mention the incidental respects she 
paid to the table between meals. 

I could not conceive how they could possibly be 
very hungry, they having been eating in the inter- 
vals of their talk all day; but idleness breeds all 



SALVATION ARMY. 



223 



sorts of vicious habits. It was then that Jessie and 
I went out in the rain and bought a fresh supply 
of food. I do not know how they managed to 
get enough to eat ordinarily from their uncertain 
sources of supply, as their appetites were something 
enormous. 

' ' You have a great many idle hours, ' ' I said, at 
supper. ' ' I should think you would find something 
to do in them, so as to be sure of food." The cadet 
would have been worth a dollar a day as a scrub- 
girl, and here the vast domestic problem was await- 
ing sheer strength like hers to solve it. 

"No, indeed," she said promptly. "The Lord 
says, if you labor in His vineyard, He will supply 
all your needs, and I'm going to trust in Him." I 
don't know just where in the Scriptures that remark- 
able statement occurs, but I am very sure that 
for the cadet it should have a physical interpre- 
tation. 

"There is also something about earning your 
bread by the sweat of your brow," remarked Jessie. 
"I should prefer any certain and honest way of 
working for my living to sitting down and waiting 
for it." 

"If we did that, people would say we did not 
trust in the Lord to supply our needs. I know one 
girl who was sent to a corps that was $350 in debt. 
She went out and did washing, and paid part of the 
debt, and everybody said she had no faith. I don't 
like to do this way, either. Now, I worked in the 
Gospel Army awhile in Minneapolis, and for the 
city missionaries, and if you couldn't collect 
enough money for expenses you could go to head- 



224 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



quarters and get more. I think the Salvation Army- 
ought to do that way." 

So here was a professional missionary calculating 
on what the public would give toward her support, 
about as honorable a business as emigrating from 
Italy to beg for a living. It's a big scheme, but for 
the cadet it didn't seem to work. 

"Where did you come from, anyhow ?" I asked, 
anxious to know what country was responsible for 
this remarkable product of providence and improvi- 
dence. 

"I'm American, of English descent," she an- 
nounced. If she is, I will go back on our institu- 
tions ! The narrow forehead, big cheeks, small pro- 
truding mouth, and retreating chin, combined with 
her big, stolid body, high color, and neutral hair, 
all pointed to a lower order of civilization than 
America. 

Over that statement I collapsed. The day and 
the weather had been too much for Jessie and me, 
and as it was still raining we staid away from the 
meeting, the first time since joining the Army. We 
had three blessed hours to ourselves ! I danced a 
jig, and both were getting hilarious, when we heard 
someone on the plank walk. The cadet had 
forgotten her tambourine — her chief instrument of 
torture. 

I guess I'll get some oil, too. Never mind ; I 
guess I wont, there's only two cents left." 

"Make a note of that, Jessie, for to-morrow's 
marketing. ' ' 

We had a tussel with the stove — those girls had 
talked the fire black. An old shoeknife served 



SALVATION ARMY. 



225 



them to cut kindling and bread, so the building of 
a lire was a work of time. Then we indulged in the 
luxury of silence for two mortal hours. 

"Ok, we kad a grand meeting," announced tke 
cadet on ker return. Aggie knelt to pray, and tke 
otker two continued tkeir interrupted lunck. 

u Don't you drink all tkat coffee," said Aggie, 
looking up. 

" You go on wid your prayin'," replied Happy 
Annie, witk ker usual felicity, whereupon Aggie 
returned to the charge with renewed zeal. 

The day had gone by. The next might be just 
like it, but it could be no worse if it tried. As we 
knelt to pray they asked us to join in their devo- 
tions. "I don't believe you love de Lawd or you pray 
to him. ' ' 

" I love Him too well to take His sacred name in 
vain five hundred times a day. You pray, Annie; 
that will do for all of us." 

"Uk, kuk. I know kow 'tis. Everybody can't 
pray like Happy Annie, den de Lawd give dem 
odder tings to do not quite so fine as to pray. Yell, 
you ask kim to kellup you, and you pray like Annie 
after avile." 

And tke evening and tke morning was tke second 
day of tke destruction of all tkings in tke deluge. 
If tkis lasted but a titke of forty days we skould not 
kave a single dove witk undipped wings to send out 
for an olive branck. 



15 



226 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Saturday morning I got breakfast as usual, the 
cadet occupying that time to make a toilet. Aggie 
resumed her War Cry songs, and Annie nursed a 
pair of feet that deserved obscurity as a delicate 
recognition of their misfortunes. She alternately 
blessed someone and grumbled at things in general, 
but no attention was paid to her. Jessie went out 
for some sugar and cream, the depleted condition of 
their larder making constant appeals to someone 
with energy enough to enter an elfectual protest. 

"I can't vare dese shoes no longer. Cadet, you 
liellup me get de odder vons V ' 

; ' Where are they, Annie V ' I asked. 

" At de shoemaker's. He fix 'em vor sixty cents, 
and I can' t get de money. I paid thirty -five cents, 
already." 

" You needn't think I've got any money for you. 
I have to pay the rent." 

' ' A cadet gets her shoes fixed sometimes, I guess. ' ' 

' ' Huh ! Mebbe she does, and mebbe she doesn t. 
You'll wait for yours awhile, anyhow." 

'Til pay for them, Annie." 

" You spend too much already. Vere you get so 
much? You don't vork." 

Oh, no. I wasn't working just then. 

"Oh, girls, I've got a song. It's one they don't 
sing any more, but I used to hear it. Trotter uses 
it in his services to wake the people up when every- 
thing is getting stupid." This was Aggie's song as 
she sang it to an indescribable tune, I sat down 



SALVATION AEMY 



227 



later and wrote it out from dictation. The arrange- 
ment is not hers : 



[ nail J 
Wherever I go; 
I recruit for the Savior, 
My colors I show, 
I delight in the salvation war." 



"I tell you that used to fetch 'em. Next night 
the house would be packed." 

" Yes; you just sing that down here and those boys 
'ud tear the roof oif. We have to be nearly as dull as 
the preachers down here because them boys take up 
everything." I should never have thought of call- 
ing the cadet's services "dull." 

After breakfast Jessie and I repaired to the coal- 
shed so that we could just look miserably into each 
other' s eyes without being caught in the very act. 
The October sunshine flooded the whole earth after 
the rain, and the odor of dead cats floated to our 
olfactory nerves, but we didn' t mind a little thing like 
that. Every prospect pleased us and only those girls 
were vile. Our landscape consisted of a view of twenty 
area doors, old barrels, tomato cans, a piece of car- 
pet, an old broom, buckets and baskets thrown under 
the platform leading to our abode, and rotting for all 
they were worth. tb Oh, Lord, how long!" groaned 
my dear Jessie. One thing, the sun was shining, 
and we could get out of the house. I could have 
endured anything except another day in the house. 



" I'm a 




j- soldier 



From top to toe; 




228 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



"I'll go order some coal," said Jessie, getting up 
wearily. " That will be one thing to do. Then!" 

"Let 'then' take care of itself, dear. I'm going 
to enjoy myself in spite of everything. Let's con- 
coct a scheme to trip them up." I had descended to 
even that species of wickedness. The opportunity 
for doing this presented itself quicker than I had 
reason to hope, and we made the most of it. 

We went to the hall that morning, all five of us. 
The three officers served the Lord on their knees by 
scrubbing the floor, the most pleasing occupation I 
had seen them engaged in since coming among them. 
The floor was covered with fruit skins, nut shells, 
tobacco, and cigars, the flotsam and jetsam of the 
" grand meeting " reported from the night before. 
Jessie and I escaped from the melee by staying on 
the platform and folding War Crys to be sold at the 
evening meeting. We got to the house at one 
o'clock to a lunch of cold pie and piety. Here is 
where the opportunity presented itself to catch one 
of them napping. 

"Do you never get anything to read" asked Jes- 
sie, during a pause in hostilities between Annie and 
Aggie. 

" We get the Bible and the War Cry. I used 
to read the story papers, those with pictures and 
the stories ' to be continued in our next. ' I liked 
that kind but the Major says it is wicked to read 
them, so I don't read any thing. Oh, they used to 
have the best stories, all about lords and ladies who 
did something they were ashamed of; then there 
would be murders, and girls carried off, and plot?, 
and the girls were always beautiful as a dream and 



SALVATION ARMY. 



229 



desperately in love, and the bad ones were always 
punished.'' An imperceptible look passed between 
Jessie and I, and a guilty compact was sealed. 
A ggie had made a revelation that should "be her 
doom." After lunch, I was not surprised that Jes- 
sie discovered that she had an errand down town. 
I staid behind, and went to the children's meeting. 
I have wondered constantly since if our language is 
so poverty stricken that such a misnomer must be 
applied to that meeting. 

A wide-eyed child came to go with us, a dear little 
baby girl, who clung to my hand and I led her over 
to the hall. Perhaps fifty street Arabs were waiting 
about t e door, bombarding it with sticks, stones, 
deca yed vegetables, and other missiles. When they 
saw us they gave a whoop and fell back. 

"Salivation Army!" they yelled. That was the 
invariable form of the State street Arab when call- 
ing attention to us. 

But such a mischievous set. They were dressed 
in every species of cast-ofT garments. Their eyes 
fairly popped out of their heads with fun and dev- 
ilishness. They brimmed with American wit, humor, 
and daring. There were Irish, Germans, Americans, 
Mulattoes, but all possesssd this peculiar Ameri- 
can quality, which seems to be in the air we breathe. 

"Now, boys, you going to be good if I let you 
in?" queried the cadet. 

•"Oh, yes. We'll, be good. We' res going to be 
saved, we are!" volunteered one. This sally was 
greeted with a roar of laughter. They stormed in 
after us. They climbed over the seats. Tuey yelled. 
They spit tobacco and smoked cigarettes, and the big 



230 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



body of the cadet was buffeted about by winds she 
could not control. 

"I want quiet, 1 ' she roared. 

" You be quiet, will you \ I'll help you keep 'em 
quiet," whereupon six volunteers pummeled their 
neighbors. 

' ' Set down, I tell you, " with a blow. Caps were 
snatched, a few garments rent, and pandemonium 
went on. 

I got one row of imps to look at me. "Boys," I 
said, "what do you like best ?" 

; ' I scream, ' ' said one. ' ' What do you like?" 

I thought a moment and then answered, deliber- 
ately. " Oysters, this time of year." 

"Come on, let's git some. I'll treat," said a 
colored boy. 

"I don't believe you have any money," I said, 
con temp tu ou si y . 

"That's so. Say, I will treat you sometime." 

' ' All right, treat me like a lady now. That doesn' t 
cost anything." Ten boys grinned, and actually 
could think of nothing impudent to say for a minute. 
Forty others were howling all around us, but those 
boys looked at me. 

' ' Do you go to school V ' I asked. ' ' What do you 
know \ I shouldn't wonder if you didn't know any- 
thing.' ' That contemptuous doubting tone actually 
put them on their metal. 

" There was a little bird settin' in a tree, 
She perked up her head and said, wee-wee- wee," 

recited an Irish boy in a style J. W. Riley might 
envy. " I know another n." 



SALVATION AEMY. 



231 



' My teacher says ' Set in pozish.' ' ' He jerked his 
body so suddenly into the false modern school rigid 
attitude that we all roared. It was all very enter- 
taining, but the cadet interfered. 

' ' We are going to say a prayer now. All you little 
boys know the Lord' s prayer. Kneel down now. 

" ' Our Father' (Say, does that mean dad 1 Halle- 
lujah ! wow- wow-wow- wow came in a monotonous 
whine from twenty throats) 'which art in heaven.' " 
But the cadet had to give it up. They ti}3ped over 
the benches ; they crawled under them and howled 
and groaned until she had to stop. 

' ' You forgot to say amen. Boys, let's say amen." 
They all said it, but still the cadet persisted. 

"I'm going to read you a story now. It's all 
about ' Harry and his Lantern.' " 

" 'Once there was a little boy whose name was 
Harry,'" she began. 

" That's a h — 11 of a name," was one comment. 

" Send him home to his mother. 1 ' 

" ' Once there was a little boy,' " she began again. 

' ' Chestnuts " She never got any further ; they 
wouldn't let her, though she pleaded and commanded 
silence. 

"See what you can do," she said to me. "Talk 
to them. Get th em quiet. ' ' 

I got up and looked at them contemptuously and 
humorously. My line of boys became quiet. 

' ' It don t take much sense for that sort of thing. 
Anybody can behave like that, " I remarked. They 
subsided. 

' ' What' s that ? What did she say % Keep still.' ' 
" Oh, I didn't say anything you want to hear. I 



232 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



don't suppose I could. You know it all so well you 
don't have to listen." They began to listen by 
that time. 

"Tell them about Jesus," whispered the cadet 
impatiently. I didn't say anything, but leaned 
against a steam pipe, as if now or the next century 
would suit my convenience for them to be silent. 
The noise gradually died away, with only a few out- 
breaks. It would have succeeded very well, but 
Annie, who was at the door, took advantage of a 
lull in the storm to say 

' ' Cadet, vot you lock de door vor ? " 

Then there was a howl and a rush. ' ' She' s locked 
us in. She won't let us out till we're saved." The 
door was unlocked and out they tumbled. I sat 
down and laughed until the tears stood in my eyes. 
A dozen little girls had sat huddled in one corner 
during the melee, and the cadet tried a small meet- 
ing with them, but she had counted without her host 
of boys. Six of them were still under the seats, four 
more had climbed on the roof and sent missiles 
through the skylight. A small regiment battered 
the door and windows, and one set, breaking through, 
stood the benches across the aisle and pounded on a 
sheet-iron stove, so the meeting had to be stopped. 
All their scrubbing of the morning availed them 
nothing. Aggie and I led the tearful baby back and 
the others staid to put the hall in order again. 

When we got to the house our scheme developed 
itself. Jessie was sitting in the rocking-chair eating 
macaroons and reading a story paper. But she was 
not selfish, and invited us to help ourselves from a 
pile of lurid literature on the table. I took up a 



SALVATION ARMY. 



233 



yellow volume of "Molly Bawn" and calmly pur- 
sued that charming heroine through several of her 
escapades, leaving Aggie to her own devices. She 
picked up a paper, glanced at the pictures, then at 
us, but we were absorbed in our wicked pursuits, so 
she looked at the forbidden fruit a little longer. 
Finally she laid the paper down with a start. We 
uttered no word and presently she came back and 
then disappeared into the bedroom, whence she 
emerged about supper-time. I got up, counted those 
papers again, nodded to Jessie, and then finished 
the daring career of " Molly Bawn" serenely. One 
paper was gone— the most attractive one in the list. 
Aggie had succumbed to the first temptation. 

Annie again took up her position at the door — this 
time to sell War Crys. Their method of getting 
rid of the whole stock on one evening should be com- 
mended to Millie' s consideration. It was thoroughly 
successful and dispensed with the disagreeable duty 
of disposing of any of them in saloons. Annie would 
stand at the door and when a candidate for admission 
presented himself the entrance was barred. Not a 
word did she say, but she held out a paper until the 
victim put his hand in his pocket and planked down 
five cents. Many times they tried to fool her, but 
Annie knew a genuine coin of the realm, if she were 
■ ' just over ' ' a year. The plugged nickels and nickels 
with holes in them were promptly rejected, and rhose 
who offered these in payment ejected. The same tests 
could not be applied to what was in the collection, 
and on that night, as on all other nights, beer and 
pool checks, Canadian, German, and Mexican copper 
coins were garnered in. I took up the collection. 



284 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



The fifteen or twenty young men who made most of 
the disturbance stared vacantly at the ceiling when 
they saw me coming. 

" What do you come here for?' 1 I asked them. 

"Fun; bet we have it, too." 

"And want somebody else to pay for it. I never 
happened to see that kind of young men before." I 
stopped and stared at them curiously and everyone 
of them put in a coin. The collection was small, and 
the cadet proceeded to ask for more money in her 
own, only, inimitable manner. 

' ' Mebbe you folks think we live often the fat ' o the 
land. We work among you all the time tryin' to 
save your souls, an' you don't keer a cent. I ain't 
makin' anything. 'F I didn't love the Lord I'd go 
right home now, but I love the Lord. As the poet 
says: 

" ' Fighting, fighting, on the narrow way, uh; 
Fighting's rough, 
Fighting's tough, 
But we will win the day, uh.' 

"Mebbe you think because you bought a War 
Cry at the door you don't need to give anything 
more. I don' t git that money . We used to make 
fifty cents often a hundred but we don't now. Some- 
times I think I'll go home and leave you all in 
darkness and sin, but the Lord says for me to stay 
and I'll stay. I'm castin' pearls before swine all 
the time, too." Thus she meandered on for a half- 
hour. She had asked me once to pull the tail of 
her basque when she talked too long, and I followed 
her suggestion. 

"There, I've talked too long. This young lady 



SALVATION ARMY 



235 



jerked my jersey to remind me of it. I talk too 
long frequent, but I git to talkin', my heart is so 
full, and I can't stop. When I git home I'm all 
tuckered out. I ain't strong, if I do look so. I'm 
weak. Now we'll have another collection." 

The first collection amounted to just fifty-one cents. 
I took a tambourine and circulated through the 
audience. One man sitting near the front put in a 
lifty-cent piece and stopped me. 

"For God's sake tell me what those girls live on," 
he said. 

"Nothing. I think they don't collect much more 
than the rent. My cousin and I had money with us 
this week, so they have had to spend nothing." 

"Then, why in the name of God don't they do 
something to earn an honest living? What good do 
they expect to accomplish here howling and being 
howled at by this mob. I beg your pardon, I sup- 
pose you are one of them, though you don't look 
like it. I came in here to-night just to look on. I'm 
a Christian and wish to encourage good evangelistic 
work wherever I find it, and I expected to find it 
here. But of all the everlasting nonsensical rot I 
ever heard this is the worst. Is this all the sort of 
people the Salvation Army can get to preach the 
Gospel?" 

" Go to Englewood and hear Captain Bertha Leyh. 
She's different," I whispered. 

" All right, I will. If there's anything in it stick 
to it. God bless you." He arose and his seat was 
vacant the rest of the evening. I only hope he at- 
tended a meeting at Englewood later for his own 
sake. That collection netted $1.23, not half a cent 



236 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



on the average from eacli individual in the house. 
This was about the amount usually collected at No. 8. 

By Sunday I collapsed. We had no knee-drill, 
and Jessie had to take me home from the morning 
meeting with a nervous headache. I fought that 
headache a]l day with will power and medicine 
to no effect. They missed my cooking, they said, 
and got up some slip-shod meals between services. 

In the evening I had to get off the platform to 
escape the cadet 1 s thunder. Annie was at the door 
and required everybody to contribute something as 
he came in. A policeman who was present looked 
at her with admiration tinged with awe. 

6 ' That girl could get a position on the city police 
force," he commented, "or ought to. She could 
hang a man with a look." 

I could stand it no longer! Jessie went up to the 
platform for my jacket, and as she came back she 
heard on all sides: ' ' Good-night, sister. ' ' She smiled 
grimly and said, " Good-by," with sinister meaning. 

All that night I raved. My nervous system was 
completely shattered, and my head filled with hor- 
rible visions. In the next room they counted the 
collection after they got home, and were volubly 
reminiscent of the u grand meeting they had had. 
Then they prayed; Annie for her " Deah Lawd Jesus 
to bress everybody," after which she told Aggie to 
stop groaning like a sick calf. 

" Vat's de matter vid you anyhow?" she asked. 

"I don't know, I guess I'm 'hystericky' over my 
trunk." 

"Veil, be 4 hystericky' all you please; dat don't 
bring your trunk. Happy Annie loves Jesus, and 



SALVATION ARMY 



237 



don't lose no trunk," and Annie fell asleep in a con- 
scious state of superior grace having been given her. 
But not Aggie. Aggie was really sick from some 
physical disorder, and kept the cadet flying about 
half the night, while Jessie was trying to soothe me 
into slumber. 

"You ask the Lord to help you, and I bet he will. 
Bet you been doing something you oughtn't to." 

"I read a story paper. Lord forgive me. Oh, I'm 
in such pain ' ' 

"Uh, huh! I thought so. Well, you just pray 
for forgiveness, and when the Lord forgives you you 
can go to sleep. Serves you right." 

"Oh, if they would just shut up their goddle- 
mighty gabble," I groaned, and Jessie had the first 
good laugh she had had all day. Not until three 
o'clock did I fall into a fitful sleep, only to awake 
at dawn and hear Aggie again praying for her 
trunk. 

We had expected to remain another day, but this 
had become a physical impossibility. I waited to 
see the weekly report made out. The income for 
the week was $26.17, of which $7.50 was War Cry 
money. A week's back rent had to be paid; the 
Major got $2 00. Living expenses up to the time we 
went there were $2.10 for five days; $1.56 surplus 
remained, but this did not so appear on the reports. 
The cadet used red ink and wrote left-handed, but 
she was an expert at doctoring reports. 

"They don't need to know we have anything 
over, ' ' she said. £ 'You keep your mouth shut, Annie, 
and I'll j>ay for your shoes.'' It may be remarked 
here that iinnie's shoes were still in limbo, since she 



238 



FACTS ABOUT THE 



had brought home a new basque from a dressmaker 
Saturday, and produced $2. 00 from some secret strong 
box with which to pay for a dozen cabinet photo- 
graphs done by a local artist. She did not offer me 
one of those counterfeit presentments of her beauti- 
ful self. "Dere's so many vot vant one, dear, dey 
light over dese," so that I felt a delicacy about ask- 
ing for one. I thought, too, since she could supply 
herself with these articles of luxury, she might be 
trusted to look after her own shoes. 

Other figures on that report were not satisfactory, 
but the cadet fixed them up, and then called Annie 
to attest that this piece of business had been trans- 
acted in her presence, and in the sight of God. It 
was then duly signed and sealed and consigned to 
the mail-box. Jessie and I looked over our accounts 
for the three days and discovered that we had spent 
$9.40 in groceries, coal, and contributions during the 
three days at No. 8, which fact possibly accounted 
for their cash coming out on the right side. 

When gathering up my belongings I looked for a 
certain bath-towel that had gone with me through 
all my wanderings. After using it that morning I 
had hung it up to dry, and now found Aggie droning 
one of her War Cry songs, which she had pasted 
above the kitchen sink, and serenely wiping the 
dishes on my bath-towel. I just left it as a souvenir 
of my brief stay among them, thinking they might 
want something later to remind them of me. 

"Praise God, I'm saved!" shouted Jessie, as we 
boarded an empty car which gave srmce to our elo- 
quence. 

"Hallelujah !" 



SALVATION ARMY. 



239 



We returned thanks for our deliverance, and then 
sat still and just meditated and meditated, while 
that street car rolled slowly back to civilization. 



THE END. 



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